Man arrested in US over Obama email threat

Obama has been subject of threats since becoming a presidential candidate in 2007.

LOS ANGELES: An armed man was arrested in the western United States on Tuesday for allegedly sending an email that threatened President Barack Obama, a justice official told AFP.

"He had sent an emailed threat against the president," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office in Washington state, confirming that the man was detained at a suburban apartment in Seattle.

"When the Secret Service and local police went to his apartment to investigate, they discovered that he was armed, he was taken into custody without incident."

Law enforcement officers were searching the house for weapons and suspicious material, Langlie said, but she did not comment on the nature of the alleged threat, noting that further information would be released on Wednesday.

ABC News affiliate KOMO reported on its website that two weapons were confiscated and that a bomb unit was called in "out of an abundance of caution."

Obama, who was campaigning in the state of Ohio on Tuesday, has previously been the subject of threats and has received security protection from the Secret Service since becoming a presidential candidate in 2007.

In one such case, a man named Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was accused of shooting at the White House last November. He was subsequently charged with the attempted assassination of the president.

Obama and his wife Michelle were in California at the time of the incident, and no one was injured.