LONDON: London police were called to investigate a suspicious package at the British parliament on Thursday but concluded it was not harmful, the latest in a string of such incidents which Prime Minister Theresa May has condemned as "abhorrent".
Specialist officers were alerted after a suspicious item of mail was found at an office in parliament. Two people were taken to hospital as a precaution but the substance was found not to be hazardous, a parliamentary spokesman said.
"The immediate area was evacuated as a precaution but access to the building was otherwise unaffected," the spokesman said. "We cannot provide any further details while the (Metropolitan) police investigation is ongoing."
Over the last few weeks, several suspicious packages have been intercepted at offices in the British parliament with a mystery substance also sent to a royal palace that newspapers said had been addressed to Prince Harry and his US fiancee Meghan Markle.
In recent days, police have been alerted to a series of suspicious parcels posted to Muslim lawmakers' parliamentary offices but so far all the packages have been found to be non-hazardous.
"(Lawmakers) will also have seen reports of a number of suspicious packages targeted at Muslim Members," May told parliament on Wednesday.
"I am sure that the whole House will join me in condemning this unacceptable and abhorrent behaviour, which has no place in our society. An investigation is under way and steps are being taken to bring the perpetrators to justice."
The incidents are not thought to be connected to this month's poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury, southern England.