UK police deal with multiple reports of suspicious packages

Specialist officers were assessing an item found inside a courtyard at the UK Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, later deemed to be non-suspicious.Police in Scotland destroyed a package that was discovered in the University of Glasgow’s mail room and were called to investigate another that was received at a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh .That package was later found to pose no risk to the public.Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson said that the package found at Glasgow University was not opened and no one was injured.”The emergency services were alerted and several buildings within the estate were evacuated as a precaution. A controlled explosion of the device was carried out this afternoon by EOD,” Johnson said in a statement shared by Police Scotland on Twitter.Scottish police were liaising with their London colleagues “in relation to an investigation into packages” found in the capital, Johnson added.A Police Scotland spokeswoman told CNN that they were not linking the suspicious package found at Glasgow University with suspicious parcels in England “at this time.”The three London devices, sent in A4-sized white postal bags to buildings at or near Heathrow Airport, London City Airport and Waterloo train station on Tuesday, are being treated by Britain’s counter-terrorism police as a “linked series.” Officers are keeping an “open mind” about motive.All the devices were judged to be viable, and in one instance, the package burst into flames when staff opened it. No one was hurt.The Irish police are assisting with the investigation, a spokesperson for An Garda Siochana, Ireland’s national police force, told CNN. British and Irish news outlets reported that at least two of the packages had Irish stamps.”We are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry. One such line is the possibility that the packages have come from Ireland,” Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement.Metropolitan Police have issued extensive advice to transport hubs and mail sorting companies to be vigilant for and report suspicious packages.