Updated at 3:11 pm: According to theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch, the three people taken to the hospital were an airman and two civilian base employees. Col. Michael Hornitschek told the Post that the package had been isolated and the FBI had been called into investigate as part of standard procedure.
Updated 12:45 pm: According to the base's official Twitter account, the three people hospitalized have been released. The chemical still has not been identified.
Our earlier story:
Three people from Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois are hospitalized with rashes after a suspicious package arrived at the base's mail center.
Air Force Lt. Benjamin Garland says 13 others who were at the mail center are being decontaminated as a precaution, although they showed no signs of illness. The package uncovered this morning prompted precautionary evacuations of the base's education center, bowling alley and other services near the mail center.
Garland didn't have any information on what made the package suspicious, although local media reported it emitted a sulphur-like smell. Garland says the hospitalized people showed no symptoms other than the rash.
Scott Air Force Base is near Mascoutah, about 25 miles east of St. Louis.
