Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building on 6 January last year, according to a report.

The then vice-president elect, who was sworn into office two weeks later, was evacuated minutes after Capitol police began investigating the bomb, Politico reported. The FBI described the bomb as a “viable” device which “could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death”.

Citing anonymous sources, Politico said that Harris was evacuated from the DNC office in Washington at 1.14pm on January 6, seven minutes after police attended to the bomb.

The threat from the pipe bomb was eventually neutralized at 4.36pm, while another bomb, found at the Republican National Committee headquarters, was nullified at 3.33pm.

The news that Harris was, for a time, vulnerable to a potential explosion adds a new dimension to the events of 6 January. Harris is the first female US vice-president and first woman of color in the White House.

As Harris was being escorted from the DNC building, Trump supporters were beginning to grapple with police on the steps of the Capitol building. Some of the group would breach the building a little over an hour later.

No one has been arrested in connection with the DNC and RNC bombs, which the FBI believes were planted by the same person. The devices were planted on the evening of 5 January, and discovered the next day.

In September, the FBI published a series of videos showing what it said was a suspect in the case. The agency, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the person in the videos.