Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters

Wednesday, June 4, 2003
(11:15 AM ET)
By Gilles Castonguay
Reuters

In Belgium, at least 10 letters containing chemicals were mailed to addresses including the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies in Brussels, and various Belgian ministries, including Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's office. Also targeted by the letters were the Brussels courthouse, an airport in the coastal town of Oostende, and the port authority in Antwerp, Belgium's second city.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Reuters
Belgian investigators found a nerve gas ingredient in letters addressed to the Belgian prime minister's office, and the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies, officials said Wednesday.

Two postal workers were briefly hospitalized after being exposed to the chemicals.

The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said.

In the amounts contained in the letters, the two chemicals are not life threatening, but can cause irritation to the eyes and skin, she said.

A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office said police suspected that the letters had one source.

"There are clear indications that the sender of the letters is one and the same person," Lieve Pellens told VRT. "There are clear similarities among the letters."

Pellens said some of them also contained a written message reading "International Islamic Society" and "Bastards."
(More: Reuters.com)
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Dan