Police officers stand guard outside the Belgian consulate in Istanbul.
AFP/DPA/Reuters/Istanbul
Suspicious envelopes containing a yellow powder were sent yesterday to five Istanbul consulates of countries involved in airstrikes against IS militants, including the US and Canada, prompting a security alert, officials said.
Sixteen people who had been exposed to the powder were under medical surveillance “as a precautionary measure”, the Turkish health ministry said in a statement.
Members of Turkey’s disaster management agency AFAD were testing powder found in letters sent to the French, German, Belgian, US and Canadian consulates, it said.
The consulates were briefly closed during investigations into the powder.
Germany’s foreign ministry in Berlin said all staff were removed from its office in Istanbul but gave no details beyond saying a “suspicious object” had been received there.
Belgium’s foreign affairs ministry said its consulate also received a suspicious envelope, the Belga news agency reported.
A US embassy spokesman confirmed that the consul-general in Istanbul also received an envelope containing a “suspicious” powder.
“(It) was dealt with according to security protocols. The consulate is operating normally,” the spokesman said.
Only one person who opened the envelope at the Canadian mission was directly exposed to the unknown substance, AFAD said.
“Six others (at the Canadian mission) were indirectly exposed,” it said, without making clear whether they had become ill. “The envelope was sent to the laboratory to be analysed and see what the powder was... and was subjected to the necessary treatment.”
AFAD radiology experts donning white protective suits were seen carrying green bags as the police sealed off the area.
French consul-general Muriel Domenach told AFP that they had received an envelope which looked like those received in the other consulates, but that it wasn’t opened.
“The tests are ongoing but we have no reason to think at this stage that it is a dangerous substance,” she said.
According to the NTV television channel, AFAD teams specialised in chemical and bacteriological risks also carried out tests at a post office in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the incident came amid mounting concerns about the growing national security threat posed by jihadists returning from war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.
Turkey has a long and porous border with Syria stretching from the Mediterranean to Iraq which has made it the main transit point for foreign rebels seeking to fight the Syrian regime.
IS fighters have moved close to Turkish soil, trying to take the mainly Kurdish town of Kobane just a few kilometres across the border with Syria.
Canada has been hit by two deadly attacks this week – a hit-and-run assault and a shooting at Canada’s war memorial and parliament building.
Canadian officials said the two men accused of carrying out the separate attacks had recently converted to Islam and wanted to join the extremist fight.
On Thursday, a man with “extremist leanings” attacked New York City police officers with a hatchet before being shot dead.
There was no immediate word on what the powder was. Samples were sent to laboratories in the capital Ankara for tests.
