Packages of anthrax jab found on beach

Packages of anthrax vaccine were found yesterday on a south coast beach.

The packages, discovered at about 11am at West Bay in Dorset, also contained phials of the drug dimercaprol, which acts as an antidote to heavy metal poisoning.

The drugs have been traced back to the Ministry of Defence. The vaccine had been supplied to the Centre for Applied Microbiological research at Porton Down in Wiltshire.

An investigation has been launched by the Ministry of Defence to discover whether the packages came from a warship involved in the Royal Navy task force deployment to the Gulf headed by HMS Ark Royal.

An MoD spokeswoman said: "Neither of the two drugs pose a risk to public health – the anthrax vaccine is used to protect personnel and doesn't contain any live anthrax. Both the drug and the vaccine were sealed in individually wrapped phials within sealed boxes."

A coastguard spokesman said police had searched the beach until 5pm to check for more packages. He said: "It was quite a painstaking search because these are small packages," he said..