COLOMBO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - A Buddhist monk's war on insects shut down Canada's mission in Sri Lanka on Monday, when powder he used to preserve his passport from moths triggered an anthrax scare, police said.
The Canadian mission had been evacuated and would remain shut indefinitely pending security procedures, a spokeswoman for the Canadian High Commission in Colombo said.
"A Buddhist monk has come to the embassy with his passport, he has put some powder to preserve that passport from being harmed by insects," said Colombo Police Deputy Inspector General Sirisena Herath. "In the embassy some people got panicky that it was some anthrax or something," he said. "It was a false alarm."
The bemused monk was carted off to a police station but would soon be released, Herath said.
