Police and fire service staff were called to Rotorua Lakes Council Civic Centre after white powder was found in a letter opened by a staff member.
Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick says she has no suspicions as to who may have sent her a letter containing white powder, which put the council building into lockdown.
The Rotorua Lakes Council customer centre was reopening at 9am today after yesterday's contamination scare.
A staff member in the council's call centre opened the envelope addressed to Mrs Chadwick about 8am and found a large amount of white powder. They called emergency services.
"We contained and in fact evacuated most of our building, shut down the air ventilation systems and so on, so there was no concern of spread to the staff," said council chief executive Geoff Williams.
The call centre and an adjacent area were evacuated and quarantined. Nine call centre staff underwent decontamination carried out by a Fire Service hazardous materials unit.
"We have no idea where the item came from or who sent it - we can't speculate on that," Mr Williams said.
"We are told that given nobody who was in close contact with the mail item had shown any symptoms, it's unlikely this was a toxic substance, so we are not overly concerned. Having said that, we are nonetheless treating this very seriously and as though it were the real thing."
He said specialist cleaning teams would have to decontaminate the part of the building affected and clean out the air conditioning systems, which were shut down to prevent any circulation of air.
Mr Williams said he was unaware of any similar previous incidents at the council.
Mrs Chadwick said she had no suspicions as to who may have sent the envelope or why.
"This is out of the blue to me personally, this is the first incident of this heightened concern.
"My family have been notified ... This is something that goes with leadership and it's very sad really that there are people out there that feel so strongly. There are other ways to express themselves, but we will see what it is about as the forensic evidence unfolds."
Mrs Chadwick said she experienced a similar incident when she was in Parliament, during the time she was progressing New Zealand's smokefree legislation and she also received death threats.
Members of the hazmat team outside the building yesterday. Photo / Ben Fraser
"I feel very reassured by the immediate response taken by council staff, police and the Fire Service and very comfortable that all the right things are being done," she said.
Rotorua police area commander Inspector Bruce Horne said the police were investigating and would know today whether the substance was hazardous.
"Our CIB is investigating. Our first step in that process will be to have the items forensically examined and the priority here is to give some peace of mind to people who have been exposed to this powder, to see if it was something untoward or not."
Fear of the unknown •Powder in envelopes caused scares at the Wellington and Canberra parliaments in 2008-9.
In cases affecting Rotorua: •In 2013 an unidentified white powder was sent to Rotorua's Electoral Offices, sparking an emergency callout and the closure of Amohia St. •In 2008 an anthrax scare at Rotorua Hospital resulted in 40 staff being evacuated from the Edward Guy Building and three decontaminated. Powder was found on the outside of a letter at the hospital. •In 2007 powder was found in mail at the Sala St premises of PF Olsen Ltd, sparking the second anthrax scare in the North Island that week.
