This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A letter bomb addressed to the Deutsche Bank chief executive, Josef Ackermann, contained a fully functional bomb, capable of exploding had it not been intercepted in the bank's post room, German authorities have said.

The device was intercepted at a routine x-ray in the bank's Frankfurt headquarters on Wednesday, according to Hesse state prosecutors and police. "Specialists from the Hesse criminal office working together with Frankfurt police have successfully deactivated the bomb," they said.

The authorities declined to give further details, citing an ongoing investigation.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman, Klaus Winker, said the company alerted police immediately after the package came to the attention of post-room staff.

The New York police department said it had been told of the scare late on Wednesday and immediately dispatched patrols to the bank's offices in the city "as a precaution".

An NYPD spokesman, Paul Browne, said the return address on the letter was the European Central Bank, which has its headquarters across the park from Deutsche Bank in central Frankfurt.

Swiss-born Ackermann, 63, was awarded a negative prize by an anti-lobby group on Wednesday for allegedly cutting deals with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, regarding efforts this year to save Greece from bankruptcy. Deutsche Bank has rejected the charges.