Box of flies brings Beehive bomb alert

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

AUTO RESPONSE: A bomb disposal robot stands outside Parliament after a suspicious package was found.

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Parliament's security will be reviewed after a box of flies beat its new $8 million security system and sparked a bomb scare.

The parcel, with a note inside saying it contained a bomb, was delivered to the office of Agriculture Minister David Carter on The Beehive's fifth floor, just after 8am yesterday.

A worker began to open the parcel, but called security when she saw the note.

Security guards and police evacuated The Beehive and Parliament for more than two hours.

The scare forced ministers out of the Beehive as they were preparing for their weekly Cabinet meeting – sparking impromptu meetings in cafes around town.

Prime Minister John Key and Cabinet minister Steven Joyce got on with business at a local watering hole, The Occidental, with about 15 staff.

The Cabinet eventually convened at the prime minister's home, Premier House while an army bomb squad from Trentham assessed the package. Staff were told just after 10.30am that they could return to the building.

Parliamentary spokesman Warren Inkster said the package arrived in the first mail run of the day. Like all mail to Parliament, it was screened and X-rayed.

"There was nothing that flagged it as suspicious. It was just a normal brown paper package."

The live cluster flies inside would have shown up on an X-ray as organic material. Parliamentary security would review how it handled the incident to see if anything could be learnt, Mr Inkster said.

The mail centre at Parliament handles about 8000 letters and parcels a day.

Mr Carter declined to comment on the incident.

Cluster flies, named because of their ability to communicate with each other using pheromones, are a growing pest. Infestations of as many as 10,000 have been reported in New Zealand homes.

- © Fairfax NZ News