UPDATE: Workers were back in the office Friday morning. More details to come.
Parksville’s post office was evacuated on Thursday morning, as emergency personnel investigate a suspicious package.
Oceanside RCMP Sgt. Steve Rose said a postal worker was processing the mail when a powdered substance became apparent on a package.
Rose said RCMP do not know where the package came from or where it was headed. He said the post office immediately initiated their safety protocol and police arrived on-scene shortly thereafter.
“We arrived, evacuated the building and now we’re maintaining security of it until the Clandestine Lab arrives,” Rose said.
A team from the Clandestine Synthetic Drug Laboratories caught a 3 p.m. ferry from the Lower Mainland to come to Parksville and investigate the substance.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the discovery of the powder.
“The involved employees have been checked by medical practitioners and at this point don’t seem to have suffered any ill effect,” Rose said.
Rose added that the RCMP are unaware of the quantity of the substance and that after preliminary testing from the Clandestine Lab, more information will become available.
Parksville Canada Post employees had been off work Wednesday as part of rotating strikes around the country, but Rose doesn’t believe the substance has any connection to that.
Related: Canada Post on strike in Parksville
Jill Davies was in the Parksville post office with a friend when the evacuation was issued at approximately 10:30 a.m.
“We were sending a package and suddenly she (Canada Post employee) said ‘you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go,'” Davies said. “They evacuated it very quickly, there weren’t many people in there it was pretty quiet.”
