UNITED NATIONS - U.N. officials found vials of dangerous chemicals, which had been removed from Iraq a decade ago, in a U.N. building in New York, but U.N. officials said Thursday there was no danger.
The FBI was called in to help remove the substances. “We will work with the NYPD and our other New York City partners for this operation,” the FBI said in a statement. “There is no hazard to the people of New York from this incident.”
Some of the material appears to be phosgene, a chemical warfare agent, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a news conference.
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The U.N. inspections unit said in a statement that the chemicals had been found last Friday.
The Iraqi weapons inspectors came across the material as they were closing their offices, which are housed in a building near the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for the inspectors.
Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a choking agent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The material was immediately secured by experts at the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission known as UNMOVIC, Okabe said.
“The office area was screened using UNOMVIC’s chemical weapons detection equipment. No toxic vapors were found. There is no immediate risk or danger. UNMOVIC staff are still working on the premises,” Okabe said.
The material in a sealed plastic bag includes “unknown liquid substances contained in metal and glass containers ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen in one of the sealed plastic bags,” she said. “The only information we have of the contents of that bag is from an inventory of a 1996 inspection which indicates that one of the items may contain phosgene, an old-generation chemical warfare agent.”