MELBOURNE, Australia — The consulates of several countries were evacuated on Wednesday in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Canberra after they received packages containing what the authorities described as potentially “hazardous material.”

VicEmergency, a government website that aggregates alerts from the state’s emergency agencies, reported that police and ambulance crews had been dispatched to at least 10 locations, and television news stations broadcast footage of emergency responders outside the consulates of India, Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea.

The government of New Zealand also confirmed it had received a suspicious package. The Australian Broadcasting Company said the United States consulate had been affected, but because of the continuing government shutdown, consulate officials were not immediately available for comment.