Brief anthrax scare hits New Zealand media firms

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Police cordoned off streets around the offices of two New Zealand media companies on Monday following an anthrax scare, but it turned out to be false, local media said.

Two envelopes containing some powder and a note saying "anthrax" were delivered to state-owned Television New Zealand and a television production company Greenstone Pictures in Auckland.

The immediate area within the TVNZ building was cordoned off and employees at Greenstone were evacuated as bomb squads removed the suspicious mail from the building.

Four people had gone through a decontamination shower set up at one of the scenes, but police later said the contents were harmless, media said.

Twenty-two people were infected and five people died in the United States in 2001 after someone mailed letters containing finely milled anthrax spores.