POLICE have confirmed a suspect envelope containing powder sent to the Armed Forces Careers Office was a hoax.

And they believe the attack, which prompted an anthrax scare that shut Preston town centre down for more than four hours on Friday, January 11, could be related to a number of similar incidents across the country recently.

DI Joe Kellett of Preston Police said: "It forms part of a series that have been sent to locations the length and breadth of the country. We are liaising closely with other forces."

All the suspect packages have contained a sinister note, and now police fear copycat attacks could be made.

DI Kellett said: "We are not releasing details of the contents or wording of the letters to prevent copycat scares."

The town was plunged into chaos on Friday, January 11, after emergency services were called to the Fishergate offices in the heart of the town's main shopping area.

Ambulance and fire crews were called to the scene and police officers closed Fishergate to traffic from around 10am, and pedestrian access was restricted.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and the ambulance service used their high tech chemical incident units, to treat the 24 members of staff from the careers office, who deal with inquiries about jobs in the RAF and Royal Navy.

At around 1pm workers emerged from the back of the careers office in Charnley Street to be led through an inflatable decontamination tent into a waiting mini-bus.

Barry Graham, Assistant Divisional Officer at Lancashire Fire and Rescue, said: "We now believe the threat to be a hoax but we could not be sure so were forced to treat it seriously."

From there the workers headed to the office of goodwill charity the Samaritans in St Wilfrid Street for medical treatment.

The town was re-opened by police at around 2.30pm.

Forensic analysis are still testing the powder to establish exactly what it is.