NY police targeted with suspected anthrax letter
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Two police officers were taken to a hospital on Wednesday after opening an envelope that contained a suspicious white powder, the New York Police Department said.
The two police officers worked in the mail screening facility at police headquarters in downtown Manhattan and opened an envelope that contained an “undetermined white powder,” said police department spokesman Paul Browne.
They underwent decontamination at a hospital as a precautionary measure in case the powder turned out to be anthrax, Browne said.
The powder was not accompanied with a note.
On July 14 and August 2, The New York Times said it had received an envelope with a suspicious white powder, raising fears on of an anthrax attack. In both incidents the powder was found to be nonhazardous.
The incidents raised fears of a repeat of a series of anthrax attacks in the United States, which started one week after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Letters with a Trenton, New Jersey, postmark and containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and sickening 17 others.
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