Was Agony Aunt on list of anthrax targets

Officers from Lancashire are liaising with police in Bedfordshire following an anthrax alert at the mail sorting offices for the tabloid newspaper. The incident was one of five anthrax alerts in Bedfordshire, including two other sorting offices, a private company and a personal address which Lancashire Police believe may be connected with the incident in Accrington on Wednesday. All of the Bedforshire incidents later transpired to be hoaxes.

On Wednesday a package containing a threatening message and white powder was opened by staff at Accrington's Royal Bank of Scotland in Blackburn Road. it has been sent to Porton Down chemical research centre in Wiltshire for analysis. Police were today awaiting the results before deciding whether to decontaminate the bank building The bank remains closed.

Police confirmed that the sender of the envelope had intended them to believe it contained anthrax and have now launched a criminal investigation in a bid to trace the source of the powder. Any hoaxers could face a jail sentence of up to seven years.

Supt Dave Mallaby, head of Operations in Eastern Division, said: "There is a potential connection with the incidents in Bedfordshire which we are currently exploring with our colleagues down there."

Fourteen staff at the bank were evacuated from the Accrington bank building and ushered to an inflatable walk through tent on Willow Street for the decontamination process. Members of staff were stripped and their clothing bagged up in case of contamination before the workers were hosed down with warm water. They were then dressed in spare ambulance overalls.

One bank employee had complained of being unwell after the letter was opened, although anthrax symptoms are not usually present immediately after exposure.

The building remained cordoned off and closed overnight and today and customers were referred to the bank's branch in Burnley.