Mullingar hospital evacuated over IS hoax

The main building of St Loman’s psychiatric hospital in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, was evacuated yesterday due to what was initially thought to be a bio-agent threat, allegedly from the terror group Islamic State (IS).

A member of the administrative staff at the hospital opened an item of mail addressed to ‘medical staff’ which contained white power and a written threat which read ‘ISIS is going to get you’. As a result, gardaí sealed off the main building, which houses just administrative staff.

The army bomb disposal unit from Athlone arrived at the building at about 5.30pm.

The building, which is ringed by thousands of residential homes and is located along the Mullingar to Delvin N52 road, close to the N4, had been put into lockdown at about 4pm.

Up to a dozen members of staff who were in the administrative area when the package was opened were quarantined.

The remainder of the building, which at one stage housed hundreds of patients, was evacuated. A cordon was erected around the main hospital building with traffic diversions put in place on the roads surrounding it.

Last night, a defence forces spokeswoman confirmed that it had examined the contents of the package and found that it was not anything “sinister”.

The package was given to gardaí for further investigation.

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