LOVE Hearts sweets inside a wedding invitation sparked a terrorist anthrax scare when they were crushed into powder in a mailing machine.

A Westhoughton bride had sent the invitation to her grandmother, but as it was going through a sorting office a postal worker saw white powder leaking from the envelope.

He feared it was anthrax. Staff sealed off the Royal Mail office and contacted the emergency services.

Up to 30 workers were evacuated from the Royal Mail office in Clifton Drive South, Lytham St Annes, as police and fire officers isolated the envelope and searched the rest of the mail for other "suspect" packages.

The emergency was ended within a hour after it was established that the white powder responsible for the alert was a crushed "love heart" sweet which the bride had put in a wedding invitation to her gran.

It was one of 12 invitatons which the bride had sent around the country containing the love heart sweets. No other alerts have been reported.

Staff at the Royal Mail office called the police at around 9am on Wednesday after the powder was spotted.

The invitation had been posted by the Westhoughton bride to her 78-year-old gran, a resident of Lemon Tree Court, Blackpool.

Speaking about the alert, the grandmother said: "My card was eventualy delivered by a police sergeant.

"He asked me if I was expecting a card and I said it wasnt my birthday and I didnt know anyone abroad so no cards were expected.

"Then I remembered that my granddaughter from Westhoughton was getting married. The policeman should have known it was a wedding invitation.

"I rang my daughter and she said the invitations had gone out and there was a Love Heart inside which must have been crushed to a powder in the post.

"In the end, the policemen seemed to think it was funny."

She added: "It was a mistake. Im sure nothing like it will ever happen again."

A police spokesman said: "We managed to get in touch with an elderly woman at the address on the envelope.

"It appeared the item being sent was a card so we asked her if it was her birthday.

"However, she said her birthday had been some weeks ago which ruled out that possibility.

"The letter carried a Bolton postcode which helped us to trace the sender."

When officers eventually spoke to the sender of the envelope, they discovered that she was the granddaughter of the St Annes pensioner.

It is believed a number of the sweets were mailed out - one with each invitation to the wedding - sparking fears of a repeat incident.

The police spokesman said: "It appeared that a relative of the elderly lady had been getting married and had sent out their wedding invitations containing sweets.

"A sweet in one of the invitations was crushed in the post resulting in the white powder which was spotted coming out of the envelope.

"Everyone else who was sent a wedding invitation is now being contacted in case a similar incident occurs elsewhere."

Steve Butler, manager at the sorting office, said: "We did have a problem after white powder was spotted by a member of staff.

"The immediate area was isolated until police arrived and identified the substance.

"It seems that a sweet had been crushed in the sorting machinery.

"The envelope was only isolated for a matter of minutes and there was no effect on our operations."

The bride did not want to comment.