Anthrax scare forces evacuation of New Mexico Capitol building

? The state Capitol was evacuated Friday after the governor’s office received a package containing an unknown white powder and a threatening letter.

“It’s most likely a hoax, but we’re taking every necessary precaution,” Gov. Bill Richardson, one of those evacuated, said at a news conference outside the Capitol.

Members of the Santa Fe Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team walk toward the Capitol Friday in Santa Fe, N.M. The building was evacuated after the Governor's Office received a package containing a threatening letter and an unknown powder. The threat was aimed at Richardson, said Department of Public Safety Secretary John Denko.

The package was removed from the building Friday evening and transported to a laboratory in Albuquerque, after epidemiologists from the New Mexico Health Department did a preliminary assessment of the powder on site.

“Initial elimination tests show that we’re 85 percent sure that it’s not anthrax, but there is still a 15 percent chance that it could be,” said Peter Olson, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

The preliminary tests also showed the substance was not radiological and not explosive, Olson said.

The threat was aimed at Richardson, said Department of Public Safety Secretary John Denko. He would not describe the letter or its contents other than to say, “It was a threat and it was a bit nasty.”

Richardson said he will not be intimidated.

“Whoever is playing this game is not going to shut state government down,” he said.

Anthrax hoaxes have increased around the nation since the still-unsolved mailings of anthrax-tainted letters in October 2001 that killed five people and sickened 17.

The letter was opened Friday afternoon by Brian Grace, the governor’s director of mail operations, whose office is a few doors from Richardson’s.

“Once they saw what they had, they dropped it and moved out,” Denko said.

He said Grace underwent decontamination on the spot – which involved stripping and washing down with water and bleach.