NHS organisations across Suffolk and Essex have been put on terror alert after suspicious liquid were sent to a number of hospitals elsewhere in the country.

Ipswich and Colchester hospitals confirmed they had been alerted to the incident by an NHS communications network yesterday morning.

“Because of the nature of the incident everyone was asked to follow the procedures that we would normally follow,” a hospital spokesman said.

“We always exercise great caution and great care when anything like that comes in to us.

“We followed all our procedures so that if anything suspicious had come in we would have dealt with it appropriately.”

The spokesman said the procedures were to alert the police and ensure no one comes into contact with the suspicious material.

According to HuffPost, police have launched a counter-terror investigation after the suspicious packages arrived at multiple hospitals and blood testing labs.

The parcels were said to be labelled “The Cyrus Project” and had been received at organisations across the country.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said in an official warning: “An organisation identifying itself as ‘The Cyrus Project’ has sent unsolicited packages, with accompanying literature requesting testing on the enclosed sample, to a number of health related organisations over the last 24 hours.”

The packages have so far proved non-hazardous, though NHS staff have been told to wear protective clothing if they come into contact.

The Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying: “We can confirm that we have received a number of reports relating to suspicious packages being received at hospitals in London.

“Specialist officers have attended the hospitals and are assessing the packages. None of the packages assessed so far have been found to contain anything hazardous.

“Police enquiries are ongoing.”