Car rams US President speech arena

A car penetrated the security perimeter around the arena where President George W Bush was speaking today and rammed the building.

Authorities swarmed the car with weapons drawn and took away the driver, a woman, and three children who were with her.

Bush was inside the building in Southaven, Mississippi, when the incident happened and was not hurt. He left the arena shortly afterward from an exit about 40 yards from the car.

No shots were fired from or at the car, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. “There was a vehicle that did crash into the side of the building,” Duffy said, although it was “not close” to the president’s car. Bush was kept in a room inside the centre until the situation was brought under control, Secret Service spokesman Ann Roman said in Washington.

“The president was never in any danger and is keeping with his schedule,” Duffy later told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to Paducah, Kentucky.

He would not say whether Bush saw what happened or say what the president’s reaction was.

Roman said the driver failed to obey police commands to stop approaching the building.

The woman was not immediately identified. A witness, Linda Neeley, said the woman was about 35 to 40 years old and that the children with her, all boys, were about 10 years old.

Neeley and other witnesses said the woman drove the car through a parking lot on the same side of the DeSoto Civic Center as the president’s exit. The car jumped the curb, drove through a gate where press buses had just left and into the side of the building near a loading dock.

“They got her out of the car and put the handcuffs on, and she was fighting them,” Neeley said.

Police rushed the car immediately and dragged out the woman and children. She was subdued and handcuffed, and all were taken away. Local law enforcement officials detained the suspect, Duffy said.

The president’s motorcade was still parked at the centre, where Bush had given the first of four campaign speeches scheduled for today.

Fewer than five minutes after the incident, Bush’s motorcade left for his next stop.