STAFF were evacuated from a Government building after a suspect package – which turned out to be a computer part – was delivered to their office.Around 100 workers with the Inland Revenue, on St Andrews Street South in Bury St Edmunds, were turned out of their block shortly after 10am yesterday(fri) after a plain brown envelope was included in their postbag.

STAFF were evacuated from a Government building after a suspect package – which turned out to be a computer part – was delivered to their office.

Around 100 workers with the Inland Revenue, on St Andrews Street South in Bury St Edmunds, were turned out of their block shortly after 10am yesterday(fri) after a plain brown envelope was included in their postbag.

Police and street wardens prevented pedestrians from approaching the building until members of the bomb squad, from Colchester Barracks, had identified the package as harmless computer equipment.

Inland Revenue staff spent the morning in the town's nearby main library while the work took place.

Sgt Gary Moran, of Suffolk police, who oversaw the evacuation said the operation had taken place with safety as the key consideration.

"A package was delivered to the building which was not expected and the staff were unsure as to what it was," he said. "We were called out, and contacted the bomb disposal team as a matter of course to be on the safe side.

"The package was X-rayed, and it was confirmed it was safe and it was opened. It turned out to be a piece of computer equipment in a plain brown envelope.

"The staff were evacuated as a matter of safety, as you cannot be too careful. The bomb squad told us they would rather be called out 50 times for something like this than not getting a call and something bad happens.

"It is better to be safe than sorry and the evacuation was good practise for everybody."

Beryl St James , spokesman for the Inland Revenue, said: "We can confirm we did evacuate the building and that we received a suspicious package in the post – but it was a false alarm.

"We would like to apologise for the inconvenience we caused the public who needed to contact us during this time but the security of staff and customers is always paramount so we evacuated the building.

"Everything is now back to business as usual – we were only away from the office for 45 minutes.

"We would like to thank the bomb squad and the local police for their swift and professional manner."