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. 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.AFP
