KEY POINTS:
A smelly "fart bomb" had postal staff and firefighters holding their breath today when it burst at a postal sorting centre on Auckland's North Shore.
The fart bomb was a giveaway in an internet magazine, but when other postal items were placed on top of the magazines being posted out the sachet bomb burst and released its contents shortly after daybreak.
Worried postal staff called the fire service and the New Zealand Post sorting centre in Albany was evacuated and roads in the area were closed.
Acting deputy chief fire officer for the North Shore, Mike McEnaney, said the bomb was harmless but smelly and staff had no choice when they called the fire service.
"Until you can identify what the substance is you have got the potential there for a hazardous chemical incident," he said.
He said once it had been identified, firefighters and postal staff kept their distance.
"It was definitely a smell of sulphur. If you were a firefighter in Rotorua it would have been a run of the mill day but to the postal staff in Tawa Drive, they thought someone was having a real bad day at work," he said.
The postal centre and surrounding roads were reopened when the smell was identified.
- NZPA
