Consulate stops issuing visas after powder scare
By Leeann Li |
May 15, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE US consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou has stopped issuing visas after an envelope with unidentified powder was found on Monday morning, Yangcheng Evening News reported yesterday.
An employee found the envelope in the staff area of the consular section and the powder stained the clothes after it was opened. The consulate immediately cleared the area and sent the powder for testing.
No one has been reported sick or injured.
The consular section was immediately closed and has not yet opened.
Visas were not being issued as the consular section had stopped handling visa applications for Chinese residents and non-immigration visas for people living in southern China.
Interviews will be rescheduled, the consulate said.
Other sections inside the consulate operated normally, the Guangzhou-based newspaper reported.
Previously, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two senators in the US in several weeks since September 18, 2001, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
It was not until April 2005, Bruce Edwards Ivins became a focus of investigation. Ivins was a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs. He killed himself in July 2008 when he took an overdose of acetaminophen.
A month later, despite having no direct evidence of his involvement, federal prosecutors declared Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime. On February 19, 2010, the FBI formally closed its investigation.
An employee found the envelope in the staff area of the consular section and the powder stained the clothes after it was opened. The consulate immediately cleared the area and sent the powder for testing.
No one has been reported sick or injured.
The consular section was immediately closed and has not yet opened.
Visas were not being issued as the consular section had stopped handling visa applications for Chinese residents and non-immigration visas for people living in southern China.
Interviews will be rescheduled, the consulate said.
Other sections inside the consulate operated normally, the Guangzhou-based newspaper reported.
Previously, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two senators in the US in several weeks since September 18, 2001, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
It was not until April 2005, Bruce Edwards Ivins became a focus of investigation. Ivins was a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs. He killed himself in July 2008 when he took an overdose of acetaminophen.
A month later, despite having no direct evidence of his involvement, federal prosecutors declared Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime. On February 19, 2010, the FBI formally closed its investigation.
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