By DPA
Wellington : Journalists working in the New Zealand Parliament’s press gallery were warned to be alert for unusual packages in the mail Monday after two media outlets in Auckland were sent envelopes containing white powder and the single word “anthrax”.
Security chiefs at the parliament in Wellington, 660 km to the south, issued a general warning that the anthrax scare seemed to be targeting the media.
Police said later that tests revealed the powders mailed to a Television New Zealand office and a private TV production company were probably common garden fertilizer and harmless.
There were no clues as to why the envelopes, both postmarked from the same place and time, were sent.
Four staff members at Greenstone Pictures were put through decontamination showers by hazardous substance specialists, who evacuated the firm’s building in Auckland, where a major traffic jam arose after fire trucks and army bomb-disposal experts closed the road.
Police were called to Television New Zealand’s head office in Auckland, but a spokeswoman said the company decided against evacuating the building on police advice.
The deadly anthrax bacteria can infect humans through inhalation, consumption of contaminated food or broken skin.