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| November 7, 2001 | Wednesday | Shaba’an 20, 1422 |
Suspect letter posted from within Pakistan: US embassy
ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: The United States embassy here said on Tuesday white powder that tested positive for anthrax and is undergoing further tests was sent to the Lahore consulate in a letter mailed from inside Pakistan.
“The letter arrived at the Lahore consulate on the 30th of October,” embassy spokesman Mark Wentworth added. “There was no return address.
“It had a local postmark — it was smudged and unreadable but was clearly local,” he said.
The white power tested positive for anthrax bacteria but US officials noted initial tests have sometimes proved inaccurate and samples were now in the United States for further tests.
“The initial test was done locally and we’ve sent a sample to the United States for further examination,” said Wentworth.
White powder found in a letter mailed to the embassy in Islamabad last week proved negative for anthrax.
Security around the US embassy has been tight since before the start of the war in Afghanistan a month ago.
The person who opened the mail was wearing a mask and gloves so he was unlikely to have been infected but had been given antibiotics as a precaution, he said.
The anthrax threat has spawned a number of hoaxes and false alarms.—Reuters
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