President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump has called the several packages containing explosive devices or suspected of containing them, acts of "domestic terrorism".

Mr Trump, addressing the situation at the White House, said it was "egregious" and said the American people need "to unify, we have to come together".

Suspected explosive devices have been sent to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and packages suspected of containing such devices were sent to former US Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan, and US House Democrat Maxine Waters. The series of incidents come just two days after a bomb was sent to the home of billionaire George Soros.

The packages to the Clintons, Obamas, and Ms Waters were intercepted before reaching any of them.

Another package containing a “live” explosive device and “white powder” was sent to the mailroom of CNN at their offices in the Time Warner Building in Manhattan, just a few steps away from a Trump International Hotel.

House Democrat and former chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida was listed as the sender/return address on the packages to the Clintons, Obamas, and Mr Brennan.

Her name, as well as Mr Brennan’s, was misspelled on the CNN package. Mr Brennan does not work for the network, but frequently appears on MSNBC.

An additional package was also sent to the Manhattan office of Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, but it was deemed as “safe” by the New York Police Department and contained a USB drive of “literature”.

Yet another package was labelled as “suspicious” in the building housing a district office of Democratic Senator Kamala Harris and the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper in San Diego, California. It was also deemed safe by police and was not addressed to the senator.

Follow the news updates as they happened