LONDON — A man who sent a bomb hoax to a U.K. coronavirus vaccine factory and similar parcels elsewhere, including a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Wednesday.
About 120 people had to be evacuated from a plant in Wales producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots in January after Anthony Collins, 54, sent a suspicious package there. The British army’s bomb disposal unit was called and production of the vaccine was halted, but the batch was salvaged later after bomb experts found no explosives in the parcel.
Detective Inspector Adam Marshall said Collins “was fully aware of the impact his actions would have and chose to impede the vaccine rollout when the program was still in its infancy.”
Authorities also intercepted similar packages Collins sent to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office, a laboratory in Wuhan and a U.S. Air Force base in England.