Bernie Sanders' office evacuated over suspicious package, police say

Democratic presidential candidate was not in office at time of evacuation

(REUTERS)

The local Senate offices for Bernie Sanders in Vermont have been evacuated, after a suspicious package was found.

The evacuation was confirmed by the Burlington Police Thursday afternoon, which noted that they were responding alongside the Vermont State Police to the suspicious package.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we have cleared the offices in the building while it is assessed," the police department's Twitter account wrote.

Mr Sanders was not in the Senate office when the office was evacuated, and was instead in New York City where he was scheduled to be filming an interview with the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, according to NBC News.

It was not immediately clear what the package contained, who may have left it, or why.

Mr Sanders is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination, and is currently polling in third place in an aggregate of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. In that average, Mr Sanders comes in with 17.1 per cent of the support nationwide, behind Elizabeth Warren (21.1 per cent) and Joe Biden (28.4 per cent).

The democratic socialist has remained a major contender in the race this year in spite of stagnant polling, in part because of his better than expected performance in the 2016 primary season when he prolonged the race against Hillary Clinton.