KEY POINTS:
Police are investigating an incident that closed the New Zealand Post mail centre at Washdyke, South Canterbury, this morning and prevented postal deliveries in Timaru city and rural districts.
Emergency services were called to the centre just after 7.10am when a postie came in contact with an unidentified white powder substance.
New Zealand Post spokeswoman Fiona Mayo said the centre manager began emergency procedures and 21 staff were evacuated from the Treneglos St building.
"Six people had to go through a very unpleasant decontamination process which involves standing fully clothed and having very high pressure and very cold water sprayed on them," Ms Mayo told NZPA.
The six workers had been close enough to the postie who found the powder for emergency services to require them to be decontaminated.
All 21 staff were taken to Timaru Hospital as a precautionary measure for observation.
But Ms Mayo aid no one was hurt and all staff had been cleared of any health issues.
The incident prevented mail deliveries in Timaru, the St Andrews rural district and the Pareora area.
Ms Mayo said the mail centre had been decontaminated and samples of the powder taken for testing by Environmental Science and research scientists.
"We're expecting mail deliveries to return to normal tomorrow," she said. "Obviously posties may have slightly heavier loads as a result of the incident."
Senior Sergeant Randel Tikitiki, of Timaru police, said police were notified in line with NZ Post protocols for such incidents and were investigating.
A number of mail items had been sent for analysis, he said.
Ms Mayo said the incident was a "timely reminder" for people to think seriously about what they sent in the mail.
"It's a very unpleasant experience for out postal workers, it holds up the mail and causes all sorts of disruption."
Today's incident was the first of its type for "about two months".
Ms Mayo said samples of the powder would be tested, "but 99.9 per cent of the time it's benign".
She said people could check the NZ Post website for advice on goods prohibited from being sent in the mail and how to package mail correctly.
- NZPA
