Staff decontaminated after suspicious parcel found at Western Bay of Plenty Council

Officers were called to reports of a suspicious parcel on at the council on Cameron Rd. Photo . File

Six staff have undergone decontamination after a suspicious parcel was found at the Western Bay of Plenty District Council in central Tauranga.

Officers were called to reports of a suspicious parcel at the council building on Cameron Rd in Greerton about 8.30am today, a police spokesman said.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said they had been called to a hazardous materials incident and sent three fire crews.

A council spokesman said information services staff were going through the morning mail when they came across a suspicious package.

He said they quickly notified emergency services who took over and disposed of the package.

As a precautionary measure, six staff members showered on-site and changed their clothing to decontaminate, he said.

He said the team's main priority was keeping staff safe.

The building was not evacuated and had remained open to the public, he said.

This was not the first time this had happened in the building and he said it was great how smoothly the staff had handled the situation.

Everything was "back to normal" now, he said. The incident had been handed over to police.

Tauranga Fire Station officer Nigel Liddicoat said it was unknown what was in the package and it would be sent down to Wellington for testing.

He said the staff had followed procedure by self-isolating in the mailroom before the parcel was stabilised in a chemical drum and taken away.