- The unstamped letter reportedly contained black powder and racist insults
According to reports, a letter intended for a high-ranking French minister contained traces of the plague.
The suspicious letter was addressed to the town hall of Roubaix, in northern France, near Lille, for the attention of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
It was unstamped and had unknown ‘inscriptions’ on the back, which aroused suspicion among workers at a sorting centre in Longiv, in the Côte-d’Or region.
When they opened it, they found it filled with black powder and a letter with racial slurs, French media defeated.
Preliminary tests showed the powder contained a “mild indication of the plague”, the disease that killed millions of people in Europe in the Middle Ages.
The suspicious letter was addressed to Roubaix City Hall, for the attention of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (photo last week)
The substance has been sent to the Pasteur Institute, which is conducting new analyses to confirm the results.
The Côte-d’Or prefecture stressed that the result could be “a false positive”.
The Pasteur Institute is expected to present its conclusions by the end of the day on Monday.
It is still unclear who is behind the insulting letter. The Public Prosecution Service has started an investigation.
The investigation has been opened for “defamation and insult,” but that could change depending on test results.
Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is usually transmitted to humans through flea bites or by touching infected animals.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are approximately 1,000 to 3,000 cases per year worldwide, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Peru being the most endemic countries.
Police have not yet named a suspect or possible motive, and Darmanin has not yet spoken publicly about the reports.
The Interior Minister spoke on France 2 TV this morning about the recent attacks on rail infrastructure, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron (C) gives a speech next to Darmanin (R) during their meeting with French police officers at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Darmanin said he was “leaning towards the likelihood” that far-left extremists were behind the arsons.
“We have identified the profiles of several individuals,” Darmanin said, before adding: “This is the traditional type of action of the far-left.”
But when asked whether the identified individuals belonged to the far-left camp, Darmanin replied: “We must be careful.”
He said the question is whether they were manipulated or whether they acted “to their own advantage.”
“These are people who may be closely involved in this movement,” the interior minister added.
