UPDATE: Suspicious letter triggers security alert at Peterborough passport office

Staff were quarantined and a cordon was set up around Peterborough passport office yesterday after a suspicious envelope was delivered.
The scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke WilliamsThe scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke Williams
The scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke Williams

Police, fire and ambulance crews were called to the incident and quickly set up a cordon in Northminster and City Road at 4.10pm.

The emergency services were called after an envelope was delivered with a passport application covered in a white substance.

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Staff who came into contact with the envelope were quarantined while emergency services analysed the envelope.

The scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke WilliamsThe scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke Williams
The scene outside the passport office in Peterborough following the security alert. Photo: Ricke Williams

All staff were allowed to leave and nobody was harmed thankfully when the substance turned out to be sugar.

A police spokeswoman said: “We were called at around 4.10pm yesterday to reports that a suspicious substance had been found in a passport application at the Passport Agency in Peterborough.

“Precautions were taken to ensure staff and the public were safe. The substance was later found to be sugar.”