Man charged after suspicious package sent to vaccine site

KENT: A man has been charged after a suspicious package was sent to a coronavirus vaccine production site.

All staff had to be evacuated from the Wockhardt site in Wrexham, North Wales, on Wednesday as the package was investigated. A spokesman for Kent Police said Anthony Collins, of Chatham Hill, Chatham, had been charged with dispatching an article by post with the intention of inducing the belief it is likely to explode or ignite.

The 53-year-old was arrested by officers on Thursday morning. He was remanded in custody to appear at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, the force said. Production ground to a halt at the site on Wednesday as the item, which police said was not a viable device, was investigated. Wockhardt, a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, provides fill-and-finish services for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine – the final stage of putting the vaccine into vials.