The Tribeca Grill – the New York City restaurant owned by actor Robert De Niro – has been evacuated by police after a suspicious package similar to those mailed to CNN and senior Democrats this week was discovered on the premises.

Citing police sources, NBC reported that the package arrived at the restaurant in the early hours of Thursday morning (October 25th). It was reportedly directly addressed to the Hollywood star, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s campaigns and administration for a couple of years and who once said he wanted to “punch” Trump.

It comes as an alert was sparked earlier this week when suspicious, apparently glass-filled pipe bombs, were sent to a number of high-profile liberal targets, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and liberal philanthropist George Soros.

Robert De NiroRobert De Niro's restaurant has been targetted

Another package, sent to former CIA director John Brennan care of CNN, caused the channel’s mail-room to be evacuated on Wednesday.

None of the nine packages in total have detonated, but they come just a couple of weeks before November’s mid-term elections, with American politics highly divided.

More: Robert De Niro blasts Donald Trump and Roseanne Barr – “we're beyond trying to see another person's point of view”

Shortly after the news broke, President Trump appeared to pin the blame on the media, tweeting: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News.”

The previous day, he had asked for greater civility in political and public life. “Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,” he said on Wednesday. “No-one should carelessly compare political opponents to historic villains, which is done often.”

A manhunt is currently underway for the individual or organisation behind the campaign. An FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force “will continue to work to identify and arrest whosoever is responsible for sending these packages,” according to the agency's director Christopher Wray.

More: Robert De Niro denounces Donald Trump as “the Baby-in-Chief” at awards gala