White powder emergency 'was flour for runners'

Members of a city running club say the white powder which sparked a major emergency services operation on Friday was probably flour left behind after one of their runs.

Several streets around Dalry were closed for four hours on Friday evening after a member of the public reported mysterious piles of white powder at the junction of Caledonian Crescent and Orwell Place.

Dozens of firefighters, police officers and paramedics rushed to the scene, as a scientific adviser removed a sample of the powder for testing.

But The New Town Hash House Harriers, who go out every week on a "hare and hounds" style run, following a flour trail laid by one of their members, said they thought the powder was the remains of an event they held two days earlier.

The group has held similar events in the city every Wednesday for 27 years and members said they were astonished to hear emergency services had closed several roads on discovering the powder.

The group, also known as TNT H3, set off from the Athletic Arms pub in Angle Park Terrace on Wednesday evening, just half a mile from where the powder was discovered. Their route took in Caledonian Crescent and Orwell Place.

Member Brian Paterson said the first he had heard of the emergency response was on Sunday morning when another member told him about it.

He said: "There was a run from the Athletic Arms last Wednesday, so the substance was flour. We've been running for almost 30 years now and we run flour trails every Wednesday evening, so I'm surprised they (the emergency services] didn't know about it.

"I didn't do the run but it was out in that area last Wednesday and it's not rained, so they've probably been lying there since Wednesday."

Mr Paterson said he was baffled by the scale of the emergency response. He said: "It's absolutely ridiculous."

He said it was not the first time the club had sparked a police alert in the Capital. He said: "At the height of the anthrax scare, a guy got hauled in to ask why he'd spread white powder all over the railway station."

He defended the group's use of flour instead of other markers like chalk, saying: "Chalk's a lot harder to use and also chalk hangs around a lot longer. Flour in Edinburgh either blows away or gets washed away in the rain. We did use sawdust during the anthrax scare."

Fellow member Cramond Perry said: "Most of the police are aware of it."I guess there are just some people, maybe younger policemen, that have not come across the Hash House Harriers before."

A police spokesman said the powder was now considered to be "non-suspicious" and that the incident was a false alarm.

A fire service spokeswoman added: "There was a genuine concern about the material that was found and as usual the necessary precautions had to be taken."