White powder sent to Belgian PM’s office identified as poison strychnine

A white powder in a letter that hospitalised an aide to Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, has been identified as strychnine, a poison that can be fatal.

The Brussels prosecutor’s office revealed on Wednesday the nature of the substance that was sent last November to government buildings, including the office of De Croo.

Belgian media reported that an unnamed member of De Croo’s office had received hospital treatment after injuries to their hands after opening the letter.

It is reported to have been discovered on 22 November, two days after similar packages were found at the office of the interior minister, Annelies Verlinden, and the headquarters of the state security service. Another person was put into quarantine as a precaution, but not hurt, after these discoveries.

Strychnine, an odourless white powder, is used as a rat poison and in humans can lead to muscle spasms, cardiac arrest, organ failure and death. The dramatic convulsions it can induce in higher doses has inspired crime novelists and writers, such as HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

News of the strychnine-laced letter emerged two days after a man armed with a knife was arrested outside De Croo’s office in Brussels. Police said his motivations were not immediately clear.

Pest controller with a bottle of Strychnine used for killing moles Photograph: Jason Smalley /Alamy

On Thursday, De Croo’s spokesperson said the poisoned letters had obviously shocked the prime minister and his staff. “Our colleague is luckily doing well now and at the time all procedures were followed strictly to prevent further damage,” the spokesperson said. “But this cannot be the new normal.”

The incidents come amid an increase in threats and violence targeting elected politicians in Europe. Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, narrowly survived an assassination attempt last year, while Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, was assaulted on a Copenhagen square, an attack that left her suffering pain in her head, neck and shoulder and psychological shock.

Belgium’s then justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne was placed under tight security in 2022 after police identified a plot to kidnap him that Van Quickenborne attributed to drug gangs.

In 2023, the Council of Europe warned that violence against local and regional elected representatives was on the rise, a trend it fears could deter people from entering politics.