Helsingborg's preparations for last night's UEFA Cup tie with Ipswich were thrown into chaos less than 20 hours before kick-off, it has emerged, following an anthrax hoax involving sporting director Thomas Stenberg.
The alarm was raised in the early hours of yesterday morning when Stenberg found an envelope containing a white powder substance shoved under his hotel room door.
Police, fire crews and paramedics were called to the Stoke-by-Nayland Golf Club complex shortly after midnight, those who had come into contact were decontaminated as a precaution and it was nearly four hours before tests showed the substance to be powder from an energy drink.
It turned out to be no more than a practical joke and although two people were given police warnings, a club spokesman refused to confirm or deny whether the duo were Helsingborg players.
Ironically, British Home Secretary David Blunkett yesterday said, just hours after the incident, he was considering jail sentences of up to seven years for people spreading terror alerts in the light of anthrax attacks in the United States.
Those involved - the Suffolk hotel was not evacuated - finally got to bed after 4am.
Helsingborg press officer Gunnar Brink today said: "There was an incident involving a threat - that is how the police and authorities evaluated it.
"The incident is now over and done with and the club have nothing more to say on the matter."
Police confirmed it was a prank played on one guest at the 30-room hotel by two others.
A police statement read: "It was quickly established that this was a practical joke played by two hotel guests on another guest.
"It has now been confirmed that the substance in the envelope was an energy drink."
Superintendent Geoff Munns added: "While it is now clear there was no malicious intent behind this prank I cannot emphasise enough the foolishness of the action of these people.
"This unthinking act not only caused hotel staff and other guests unwarranted anxiety, but also needlessly diverted the emergency services, wasting time and potentially putting genuine victims of an emergency at risk."
PA