LONDON - Police have arrested a protester who threw a white powder in Britain's parliament, triggering a security alert in a country still on edge 11 months after suicide bombers killed dozens in the capital.
Exits from the parliament in central London were briefly sealed off while police checked the substance, but the alert ended when police decided the powder was harmless.
One police officer, who declined to be named, said there had been fears the powder could be anthrax, but parliamentarian Keith Vaz told Reuters he understood it was wheat flour.
The protester threw the powder over the black and white marble floor of parliament's central lobby, an area where members of parliament and the public rub shoulders.
"A man spread an unidentified substance in the central lobby. He has been detained at the scene while inquiries continue," police said in a statement.
One witness, who asked not to be named, said the protester shouted to bystanders, "You could all be dead."
Another witness told Sky television: "He started saying something... about how corrupt everything was... All of us just thought it's just a very sad protester. At the end of his speech, we gave him a round of applause."
Security in the British capital has been tight since four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in attacks on three underground trains and a bus last July.
The parliament has suffered several security breaches in the last couple of years despite authorities making visitors pass through metal detectors and the installation of a transparent shield in front of the public gallery.
A campaigner for fathers' rights threw purple powder at Prime Minister Tony Blair in the wood-panelled chamber of the lower house in 2004 and later that year pro-hunting protesters burst on to the floor of parliament.
Anthrax-laced letters prompted security alerts in the United States shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Twenty-two people were exposed to the anthrax and five died.
- REUTERS
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