A suspected explosive device has been found in a mailbox near the New York state home of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, the FBI says.

Bedford police responded to the address in the town of Katonah on Monday afternoon after an employee of the residence opened the package.

The employee placed the device in a wooded area and called police, who alerted the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives.

Authorities would not say whether the object was capable of exploding.

We are conducting an investigation at and around a residence in Bedford, NY. There is no threat to public safety, and we have no further comment at this time.

— FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) 23 October 2018

Officers said the FBI's terrorism task force is investigating.

The FBI's New York field office said on Twitter that it was "conducting an investigation at and around a residence in Bedford, NY. There is no threat to public safety, and we have no further comment at this time".

Mr Soros, who was born in Hungary and is one of the world's richest men having made a billion dollars betting against sterling on Black Wednesday in 1992, has donated heavily to liberal causes and is vilified on the right.

He is also the subject of many unfounded conspiracy theories.

Recently, conservative critics have, without evidence, accused him of secretly financing a caravan of Central American migrants to make their way north towards Mexico and the US.

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This is what the campaign against Soros by Orbán, Farage and the alt-right leads to. Their anti-Semitic laced slurs and propaganda are dangerous. When will they stop? https://t.co/bQXgo7EpgB

— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) October 23, 2018

Others have falsely accused him of being a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War, when he was a child in Hungary.

Right-wing activists frequently post the addresses of homes he owns in Westchester County, north of New York City, on social media.

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