Man with gun tries to enter Argentina presidential office

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A man was detained Monday after he tried to walk into Argentina’s presidential palace with a pistol while seeking a meeting with the president.

Security agents stopped Francisco Ariel Muñiz when he sought to enter the Casa Rosada — or Pink House — with a .44-calibre Taurus revolver inside a briefcase. Officials said he claimed to have a private audience with President Mauricio Macri.

The man fled, but was detained by presidential security agents at a subway station. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said that he would be given a medical examination and that the gun was not loaded.

The Telam state news agency later said that explosives experts were sent to a building next to the lower house of Congress and the presidential palace following bomb threats.

Local media then reported that other bomb threats forced an evacuation of the capital’s two main train stations.

It was not clear if the incidents were related.