Package to US homeland security chief ignites

A package addressed to US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited at a postal facility in Washington D.C. but no one was injured.

Security officials said the incident, and two similar incidents in the neighbouring state of Maryland this week, are not believed to be the result of Islamist terrorism.

A mail sorter was tossing mail into a bin when the package ignited on its own. A Department of Homeland Security official said the package was addressed to Napolitano.

The postal facility is located in an industrial area of the city, not near tourist districts, the White House or Capitol building.

"Initial reporting indicates this incident bears characteristics similar to the flaring package incidents at two Maryland state facilities yesterday," a Homeland Security official said.

The incidents revived memories of letters laced with the deadly anthrax sent nearly a decade ago to top US lawmakers in Washington and to members of the news media. Those letters killed five people and sickened 17 others.

The postal facility involved in the incident screens and handles mail and packages sent to federal government agencies. It was set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and 2001 anthrax attack, according to the Washington Post.

On Thursday, two packages erupted in smoke and flames in the mailrooms of two Maryland state government buildings but no one was seriously injured.

At least one of the packages in Maryland contained a message complaining about electronic highway road signs that ask motorists to report suspicious activity, said law enforcement and intelligence officials.

One incident took place in the mailroom of the Maryland Department of Transport facility in Hanover and the other in a mail-handling facility in a state building in Annapolis next to the Maryland State House, police said.