Nerve gas found in UN building

UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said one of the substances identified was phosgene, an “old generation chemical warfare agent”.

Ms Okabe said there was “no immediate risk or danger” but the phosgene, which was suspended in oil, “could be potentially hazardous”.

The vials were found as the offices were being cleaned out and were immediately secured by experts at the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), she said.

“The office area was screened using UNMOVIC’s chemical weapons detection equipment,” Ms Okabe said.

“No toxic vapours were found. There is no immediate risk or danger. UNMOVIC staff are still working on the premises.”

She added that the material was in a sealed plastic bag and included “unknown liquid substances contained in metal and glass containers ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen in one of the sealed plastic bags.”

The phosgene was discovered last Friday and identified on Wednesday, Ms Okabe said.

A joint FBI and NYPD Haz-Mat team was called in to safely remove the material.

Ewen Buchanan, a UNMOVIC spokesman, said the phosgene was in liquid form, suspended in the oil, in a drinks can-size container.

Mr Buchanan said a second sealed package contained tiny samples of chemical agents in sealed glass tubes shaped like pens that are used by inspectors to identify chemical agents.

Each of these reference standards contained less than a gram of chemical material, he said.

Mr Buchanan said the material was discovered last Friday, put in double zip-locked bags and locked in a safe in a room that is double-locked.

The only marking on the material was an inventory number, he said.

UNMOVIC has 1,400 linear feet (426.7 linear metres) of files, and it took until Wednesday to find the inventory the number matched, which indicated that the material was from Iraq’s main chemical weapons facility at Muthana, near Samarra.

UN inspectors pulled out of Iraq just before the March 2003 US-led invasion and were barred by the US from returning.

Britain and the US said they were taking over responsibility for Iraq’s disarmament, and in late June, the UN Security Council voted to shut down UNMOVIC and the UN nuclear inspection operation in Iraq.

A NYPD spokesman said the phosgene was: “recovered by UN inspectors at an Iraqi chemical weapons facility in 1996.”

“The phosgene was recovered along with another package containing nuclear magnetic resonance reference standards,” he said.

“The materials pose no threat to the public, and an evacuation will be limited to personnel occupying UN offices on the sixth floor... while the materials are removed.

“The materials were discovered in two small plastic packages, with metal and glass containers, ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen.”

The material is expected to be removed to a military facility outside of New York.

In Washington, the US State Department said it learned of the discovery late Wednesday and had immediately contacted the FBI to deal with the disposal.

Tom Casey, state department’s deputy spokesman, said a joint US-UN investigation would be made into why the samples had been stored in the office but stressed that the chemicals had been there for at least a decade and did not pose any health risk.

Brian Mullady, a senior UNMOVIC official, told reporters that the staff did an immediate sweep of the rest of its archives to see if there was any more material, but there was none.

“This is it,” he said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the chemical agents “were brought over as a result of U.N. weapons inspections during the UNMOVIC era” and had been at the UNMOVIC facility for over a decade.

“They’ve done some testing of the air, and there’s no danger to the folks involved,” Mr Snow said.

The agents should have been transported to an appropriately equipped lab for analysis, he said.

He added: “I’m sure that there are going to be a lot of red-faced people over at the U.N. trying to figure out how they got there.”