The Queenstown District Court was the scene of a full-scale emergency services call-out yesterday morning, after a suspicious package was received in the court's administration area, on the first floor of the Stanley St building.
Two fire appliances from Queenstown and two from Frankton, along with fire crews and several members of the Queenstown police were called to the court just after 10am.
Queenstown Fire Station officer Stuart Ide told Queenstown Times the Fire Service received a call from the court house to say an unidentifiable powder had been received by letter.
The woman who opened the letter was immediately taken away to shower and remove any trace of the powder.
Mr Ide said the woman was shaken, but appeared unharmed.
"We had to follow our procedures to contain the powder and then make the area safe."
Investigations established that the envelope had come from the New Zealand Post outlet behind the court house.
It had been picked up from a post office box.
"It was possible that the substance could have leaked and we wanted to check out the post office and the mail sorting area," Mr Ide said.
The four appliances with 16 crew were at the scene within minutes.
They worked quickly to check the post office.
No trace of the substance was found.
From there the focus turned to the court house, with emergency services working on a "worst-case scenario" - that the substance was anthrax, Mr Ide said.
"What sort of things come in powder form?
"When you don't know what it is, you have to work on it being the worst-case scenario.
"We have to give our people the best protection we can."
Mr Ide said the two volunteers sent in to remove the envelope were dressed in "level three" protective suits, with breathing apparatus.
The envelope was in the administration area of the court house on the first floor.
It was put in a plastic bag, along with the brush used to remove the residue.
The plastic bag was secured in a plastic bucket outside the court house.
It was then given to the police for identification, he said.
After leaving the court house, both fire fighters went through a decontamination process.
This involved being hosed down and scrubbed to ensure any remaining residue was removed.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said nobody was harmed by the white powder.
The matter was now under police investigation.
"The Ministry of Justice has a standard security process in place for such incidents and this process was appropriately followed."
Details on whether the substance had been identified were not available last night.
