Police are still investigating what happened in the anthrax scare in Huddersfield this morning.
A major route into the town was closed for more than two hours after a man claimed he had been attacked with anthrax powder .
Anthrax is a potentially fatal disease commonly associated with livestock such as cows and sheep.
Specialist firefighters were called to the scene and a full-scale emergency operation swung into action.
Police shut Wakefield Road between the Shorehead roundabout and Firth Street at Aspley and huge tailbacks built up as a result.
The operation centred on a bus stop near the Top Spot Snooker Club.
Police received a call at 8.31am from a man who claimed he had been attacked with anthrax.
Police, fire and ambulance crews attended the man, who was standing at the bus stop.
The man, who has not been named, was told to strip and put on an orange chemical protection suit .
He was then hosed down in a full-scale decontamination procedure.
The Examiner understands the man was known to police and no evidence of any powder was found.
The man was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but showed no signs of ill health , said a West Yorkshire Police spokesman.
The operation involved West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Hazardous Materials Unit, Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s Incident Response Unit and specialist police units.
An exclusion zone was established near Sainsbury’s and traffic was diverted.
Huddersfield-bound traffic in Wakefield Road queued back as far as Waterloo.
Motorists reported long delays and a bus from Almondbury took 90 minutes to reach the town centre.
Staff and students at Huddersfield University were caught up in the disruption as were contractors working on the university’s new sports complex .
Station commander Steve Goddard, of the Wakefield-based Hazardous Materials Unit, said the incident was treated as a full-scale chemical alert.
“Though no signs of powder were found we carried out a full decontamination,” he said.
“We have to work on a worst case scenario.”
Mr Goddard confirmed that the fire service received reports that anthrax had been thrown over a man .
“We found no evidence of that but we had to treat the reports as credible,” he added.
Mr Goddard said the man was advised to take his outer clothing off and prepare for full decontamination.
“Disrobing removes around 80% of any contamination,” he said.
“The man said he had some in his mouth so we gave him some water to swill and then completed the showering procedure.”
After that the man was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary by ambulance.
Fire crews used a bleach solution to clean the road and the area around the bus stop.
When Wakefield Road was re-opened dozens of people walked through heading for the town centre.
Eyewitness Martin Pilkington, 25, one of the university contractors, said he saw the man stripped down to a white T-shirt.
He told how firefighters handed him an orange suit which he at first “kicked away.”
Mr Pilkington added: “They then washed him down and he willingly put the suit on and walked back with them.”
Another contractor said: “The man was just standing at the bus stop and it looked like he was on his phone.
“They took all his clothes off and hosed him down.”
A police spokesman said linvestigations remained on-going.
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Recap: See how we covered the Huddersfield anthrax scare as it happened - click here to read
Anthrax: Huddersfield's historic connection to deadly disease - click here to read
