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Suspicious 'white powder' sent to NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

A suspicious item, reported to be white powder, has been found in an envelope one floor below New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's office.

Specialist fire service units have been called to New Zealand's parliamentary precinct in Wellington on Monday morning after the discovery of the package, which was sent to Ms Ardern.

The item was picked up in the mail room of level eight of the Beehive, the executive wing of the country's parliament buildings.

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking in Parliament with two microphones in front of her.
Suspicious 'white powder' was sent to Jacinda Ardern in NZ Parliament on Monday morning. Source: Getty

Ms Ardern was at work on level nine, ahead of chairing a lunchtime cabinet meeting on level 10.

Three units, including a hazardous material truck, were stationed at the back of parliament to deal with the security scare.

Terrorist killed in NZ supermarket attack

The package comes less than two weeks after police in New Zealand shot and killed a "violent extremist" after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in an Auckland supermarket.

Ms Ardern said the man, who arrived in New Zealand in 2011, entered a shopping mall in suburban Auckland, seized a knife from a display before going on a stabbing spree.

Six people were wounded, three critically, in the 60 seconds before surveillance officers opened fire.

"What happened today was despicable, it was hateful it was wrong," Ms Ardern said in a news conference. "It was carried out by an individual, not a faith."

The attack is New Zealand's most violent terrorist act since the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, when 51 worshippers were killed in a premeditated attack carried out by an Australian white nationalist.

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