Monty Python member Eric Idle sent suspicious powder sparking anthrax scare
- Hazmat team deployed after ‘certified letter’ posted from Thailand was opened by a member of staff at Idle’s Hollywood Hills home
The delivery of a suspicious powder to the California home of the British actor Eric Idle is being treated as an attempted anthrax attack.
The “certified letter”, which was posted from Thailand, was opened by a member of staff at Idle’s Hollywood Hills home on Monday evening and Los Angeles police, fire and hazardous materials responders were dispatched. It is not thought the employee was harmed.
The house was evacuated but a considerable police presence remains outside the property, which borders the home of Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher.
Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by a spore-forming bacterium. It commonly affects hoofed animals but can occur in humans exposed to the infection or following a release of spores in biological warfare by terrorists.
Five people died and 17 were infected by anthrax in letters posted to media outlets and to two Democratic US senators in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001.
