Chemical scare powder 'was dust'

A white powder which sparked a decontamination operation turned out to be dust, the fire service has said.

A 50m (164ft) cordon was set up around the Royal Bank of Scotland in Trinity Street, Hanley, after a cleaner found the dust in a bin on Thursday.

The University Hospital North Staffordshire activated its "chemical incident plan" after the incident.

The cleaner and another person had to be decontaminated but tests later revealed the powder was non-hazardous.

Staffordshire Fire Service said it had to treat the incident "seriously".

Stuart Claughton, from the fire service, said: "We used specialist equipment to identify the powder and we have now concluded that this was a low toxicity and non-hazardous dust, which had somehow made its way this into the receipt bin.

"We have to treat any incidents of this nature seriously, which is why a number of precautionary measures were put in place to ensure the safety of both members of the public and our firefighters."