Prince Harry and Megan Markle anthrax threat being treated as 'racist hate crime'

(WENN) - Police say they are treating a letter containing white powder sent to Megan Markle, which sparked an anthrax scare, as a racist hate crime.

The letter was sent to Prince Harry and his American fiancee at the Kensington Palace residence they share on Feb. 12, and is understood to have contained a racist message. The note led to a security scare, with specialists rushed in to check the powder.

“Officers are also investigating an allegation of malicious communications, which relates to the same package, and it is being treated as a racist hate crime," the police said in a statement to The Guardian newspaper. “The matter is being investigated by officers from the Met’s counter-terrorism command.”

Meghan is from a mixed-race background, her mother is African-American and her father is white.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command were called in for a check on the substance in the package, which was intercepted before it reached the engaged couple, but it turned out to be non-harmful.

Officers are reportedly now on high alert ahead of Harry and Meghan's wedding at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19.