‘Tartan terrorists' send toxic package to Blair

Anti-terrorist officers in Britain were today hunting extremist Scottish nationalists who sent aromatherapy oils containing caustic soda to 10 Downing Street.

Scotland Yard said it received a call from a man claiming to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army saying 16 packages had been sent.

One was sent to 10 Downing Street but was not opened. Another was sent to an unnamed Scottish MP. It is not known where the other 14 packages were sent.

The packages contained bottles purporting to hold eucalyptus oil but which really contained sodium hydroxide, commonly known as caustic soda, which can cause permanent scarring if it comes into contact with skin.

Scotland Yard described the fake aromatherapy oil and instructions on how to use it as ‘‘cynically dangerous’’.

A spokesman said: ‘‘‘‘Officers from the Metropolitan Police were alerted at approximately 2pm yesterday following a telephone warning from an anonymous male purporting to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army.

‘‘We are urging people who may receive a package through the post in suspicious circumstances containing a liquid substance to contact 999 immediately.

‘‘We believe this is especially applicable to members of the political parties and their members of staff.’’

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘‘We never comment on security issues.’’

However, a government source said nobody at No 10 had been in danger from the package.

The Scottish National Liberation Army was formed in 1980 by Glasgow-born former soldier Adam Busby, 53, who declared war on ‘‘mass English immigration’’.

In the 1980s, the group made a series of hoax bomb calls and death threats to the Royal Family, but struggled to be taken seriously.

Busby moved to Ireland in 1983 and formed the breakaway Scottish Separatist Group, whose stated aims were to reverse English immigration into Scotland, restore Gaelic as the national language and create an independent Scottish republic.

Dubbed the ‘‘tartan terrorists’’, the SNLA was connected to letters sent last summer to St Andrews University, where Prince William is studying, which falsely claimed to contain anthrax.