PANIC broke out at a sorting office in Pontypool when white powder was seen leaking from a package.

Workers at the delivery office on the Pontnewynydd industrial estate raised the alarm at 4am on Saturday after spotting the substance coming from a sealed envelope waiting to be delivered.

Police were called to the scene to investigate the possibility of anthrax, but on examination the suspect powder was found to have come from a crushed Love Heart sweet being sent with a letter.

Sergeant Ian Wilkinson, of Pontypool police station, said: "We recovered the item and examined it and it was nothing in the end. It seems the sweet got crushed in the sorting machine and started coming out of the package where it wasn't properly sealed.

"However, the staff were sent into a panic and rightly so and once we discovered who the sender was, we spoke to them about the consequences of their actions. They were very apologetic."