Australia and Austria worried about threat of biological attacks

In Australia, worry about possible terrorist acts grows connected with using biological weapons. Monday morning, in some Australian cities, incidents took place that caused the evacuation of people. For example, more than 40 workers of the US consulate to Melbourne were temporarily evacuated after in a received letter, a suspicious substance was found. According to the consulate’s officials, the envelope with the substance was found after all the incoming letters were checked with scanner. The envelope and its contents are being investigated by specialists. The consulate works in normal order. This Monday, workers of the Herald and Weekly Times were also evacuated. The newspaper is situated in the central quarter of Melbourne. A suspicious letter came to the 8th floor of the building. At the moment, the police and toxic agent specialists are investigating its contents, RIA ‘Novosti’ reports. In Canberra, tax department workers received a suspicious package containing some powder, which also caused the evacuation of more than 80 workers. The police, fire-brigade, and toxic-agent specialists arrived to the department. The package was seized for investigation. One more incident, which caused evacuation of people, took place in Sidney. The workers of a post office in the south-west of the city had to leave the building after an envelope came containing an unknown powder. The envelope is being analyzed by the police. In Townsville (State Queensland), a worker of the Townsville Enterprise company received a letter containing white powder. The police and fire-brigade arrived immediately. The workers of the company were evacuated. Four of them were delivered to a hospital for an examination. At the same time, an official of the police of Vienna international airport Schwechat reported that at night, Sunday to Monday, an alarm was sounded in the airport after suspicious white powder was found in a newspaper stand in terminal number one. All the passengers and servicemen were evacuated from the terminal. At the moment, specialists are trying to identify the powder. In spite of the incident, all the services of the airport are functioning in a usual manner and all flights are being carried out according to the schedule.