Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka shut down amid Anthrax fear

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2004, 12:42 GMT]
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo has been closed down temporarily for three days with effect from Thursday due to anthrax scare when it received a letter containing white powder. Norwegian diplomats suspected the white powder could be deadly anthrax powder, embassy sources said. Police from Colombo Cinnamon Garden has sealed off the area for security reasons while the powder is being analysed. All events scheduled to be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Norwegian embassy in relation to the current visit of special peace envoy Mr.Erik Solheim have been cancelled, officials said.



The movement of Norwegian diplomats and other staff have been curtailed and full-scale investigation into this incident is underway, sources said.

The Embassy of United States of America (USA) in Colombo was closed down temporarily few months ago when it received similar threat by post. Later government analyst ruled out the white powder found in the envelope was not anthrax powder.

The Canadian Embassy in Colombo was temporarily closed down some weeks ago when diplomats found some white powder between the pages of the passport of a Buddhist monk due to anthrax scare. Later it was found to be false, sources said.