White House locked down temporarily after fence-jumper caught

The White House was locked down temporarily on Thursday after a man draped in an American flag scaled a fence, gaining access to the grounds as the first family celebrated Thanksgiving. 

The north and south fence lines at the White House were temporarily closed, Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said. In the hours after the incident, numerous armed security personnel were seen along the streets and sidewalks outside the executive mansion.

The interloper, Joseph Caputo, "was immediately apprehended and taken into custody," the Secret Service said in a release. "Criminal charges are pending at this time."

A witness to the incident, Victoria Pena of Houston, said the man was standing with other people visiting the White House compound when he rushed toward the fence carrying what appeared to be a binder.

"I just heard him take a big, deep breath and whisper to himself, 'All right, let's do this' and he took off," Pena said. "It was chaotic. Everyone around us was yelling and kids were crying. It was pretty unexpected."

Security personnel and guard dogs ran toward the man and he lay on the grass awaiting them, Pena said.

The Thanksgiving Day incident comes amid heightened security concerns in the United States and other Western countries following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted a concert hall, a stadium and a cafe.

President Barack Obama was at the White House to celebrate the U.S. holiday, according to his public schedule. A photo by the official White House photographer posted online earlier in the day showed Obama making phone calls to members of the U.S. military.

In May, the Secret Service added a second layer of steel spikes to the top of the fence following an incident the previous month in which a California man scaled the fence and got onto the lawn. Other long-term security enhancements were under consideration in response to a September 2014 security breach in which a Texas man managed to scale the fence, enter the executive mansion and run deep into the building.

Al Jazeera with wire services