On Friday night, Secret Service agents rushed US President Donald Trump into a bunker deep under the White House as thousands of angry demonstrators gathered outside the building, some throwing rocks and trying to breach barriers set up by the police.

Trump spent almost an hour in the shelter, which was intended to be used in emergencies such as terrorist attacks, officials close to the White House who were not allowed to divulge private matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed. 

Other sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN that the first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, were also rushed to the bunker.

CNN learned from another source that if the situation at the White House is raised to RED and the President is taken to the Emergency Operations Center Melania, Barron and any other first family members would be moved as well.

According to reports, the Secret Service felt very nervous about the president's safety on Friday night when he was rushed to safety underneath the White House as protests started to grown violent outside the executive mansion.

Trump has taken to Twitter to criticize a law enforcement response that he believed has not been strong enough, especially lashing out at local Democratic leadership across the United States and suggesting the use of military force may be needed to handle the chaos.

Friday's demonstrations were sparked by the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer - Derek Chauvin - planted his knee on his neck for around nine minutes.

Washington's protests turned violent and seemed to take the police by surprise. Since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the protests triggered one of the highest security alerts on the White House.

The White House cautioned its personnel who must report for duty on Monday to hide their passes until they reach a Secret Service entry point and to conceal these passes as they depart, an email which CNN was able to view, disclosed late Sunday.

The email repeated protocols for maximum telework condition and stated there is still an elevated security status as a result of the demonstrations.

The following day, Trump praised the Secret Service for their handling of the protests outside the White House in the wake of Floyd's death in Minneapolis, last week. In his tweet, Trump lauded his security detail, saying "they were not only totally professional, but very cool," as reported by Daily Mail.

The underground concrete bunker was where former Vice President Dick Cheney was rushed to when terrorists hijacked four passenger aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001. Two planes rammed into New York's famous World Trade Center, one slammed into the Pentagon, and another was brought down in Pennsylvania.