Anthrax scare spreads across Europe

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, OCT. 16. Like a raging forest fire, the anthrax scare is spreading across Europe after several suspicious envelopes were sent to major Government agencies and businesses.

On Monday, police evacuated three public buildings and sent 55 people to hospital for tests. So far, the tests in France have proved negative and French Health Minister, Mr. Bernard Kouchner, said: ``There is nothing in these powders. This was confirmed overnight. Further tests are underway, but initial examination has revealed no trace of anthrax.''

In Paris, the police evacuated the offices of the European Space Agency and College de France, an academic body, after envelopes containing a white powder were sent there.

Mr. Jacques Kerdoncuff, Paris fire chief told reporters that the contents of the envelopes were discovered at College de France, a national credit facility and one of the offices of the Ministry of Finance. ``There is always the possibility of hoaxes and pranksters although such jokes are in extremely poor taste. We are taking these threats very seriously and each one will be verified,'' he said.

The people who found the powders said the substance had no noticeable odour and did not cause itching or burning.

Reports from Berlin say police sealed off the mail room at the city office of the German Chancellor, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, after employees noticed white powder trickling out of a package.

A Government spokesman said Mr. Schroeder was not in the building when the package was discovered. Two such packages were reported from other German cities. (Agency reports said tests carried out on the package delivered at Mr. Schroeder's office did not find any trace of anthrax).

German postal authorities said they had temporarily closed down two sorting offices. Mr. Reinhard Kurth, Director of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national centre for research on epidemics, warned the people in a television interview to leave all suspicious packages alone and immediately alert the police. ``Don't breathe, don't touch, don't taste,'' he said.

Similar scares have been reported from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Gibralter, a major British military base.

France was the first country to have gone on full alert against possible germ attacks, even before the first anthrax case was reported from the U.S.

In a television interview over two weeks ago, the Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Jospin, said he had placed the nation's epidemiological research bodies on high alert.

AFP reports from Moscow:

Thirty-six people in Russia's eastern Tuva republic have undergone tests in hospital after coming into contact with animals suffering from anthrax, Izvestia reported on Tuesday.

Isolated cases of anthrax have been registered in Russia over the years but the paper said no such cases had been seen in humans in Tuva since 1987.

Unlike in the U.S. and several other countries, no letters containing suspicious powder have been found in Russia.

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