The powder was discovered on Monday morning when an employee at NHH opened an internal envelope and found a re-glued envelope inside. The internal envelope had the employees name printed on it. In the re-glued envelope was a white powder.

The envelope was handed over to Emergency Preparedness Manager Eivind Drange, who, after observing what he had received, notified the police.

At NHH, employees who had been in contact with the envelope were isolated and quarantined. The quarantine was lifted after a short time when knowledgeable personnel from the emergency services determined that the powder was very unlikely to be dangerous.

The emergency call to NHH was picked up by Bergens Tidende, which within a short time physically arrived at the entrance area at NHH. The situation was clarified after a short time and was called off, and both emergency services and the media left the campus.

The police have confirmed to the media that the powder is harmless, but have not given NHH any specific feedback on what it might be.

'It is uncertain whether we will get any feedback from the police on what the powder actually contained,' says Emergency Preparedness Manager Eivind Drange.

NHH's handling of the case was carried out with the mobilization of internal resources and notification of emergency services in line with procedures in the emergency plan. Eivind will carry out an evaluation of the incident and the emergency preparedness work together with the employees involved to assess any possible improvements in the handling of such situations.

It remains a mystery at what time and by whom the powder was placed in the mail shelf. Due to holiday closures, it may have been there for several weeks. It is also unclear what the purpose of sending the powder was.

'We can find no explanation for this,' says Rector Øystein Thøgersen.

'There was no message accompanying the envelope, and we also find no reason why this particular employee should receive the powder. It may seem like a bad joke or an inexplicable attempt to cause unrest,' says rector.

The employee says that he found it unpleasant to receive the envelope, but that he has concluded that it is unlikely that this was aimed at him as an individual.

'I have not had any conflicts internally or externally, and I have not been exposed to any controversial matters,' says the employee.

The employee did not want to comment on the case in the media, and for this reason, Paraplyen will not publish the name of the person either, even though it is already known among a number of colleagues at NHH.

'The moment we name the person in question, the media will be able to consider it a legitimate reason to be able to publish the name themselves, even if the information is obtained from an internal platform,' says Director of Communications and External Relations, Geir Mikalsen.

'In all communication, it is generally important to be based on facts and not speculation, and to balance openness towards the media with protecting employees and internal matters related to emergency preparedness work,' he says.

Rector Øystein Thøgersen both hopes and believes that the powder case was a one-off.

'At least we can state on the positive side that the powder was harmless. I therefore choose to believe that this was a strange one-off case that we may never get an answer to,' says rector.