UPDATE: Hazmat team identifies suspicious substance | News

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Hazmat units and ambulances responded to a home near 20th and Market Streets Sunday night, according to the Wilmington Fire Department.

Lucy Crockett with Wilmington Police said officers initially responded to the home in the 2000 block of Market Street around 5:45 Sunday evening for a death investigation.

According to officials, officers called the Wilmington Fire Department after they found a suspicious substance inside the home.

A Hazmat team identified the substance as potassium cyanide. According to fire officials, potassium cyanide when combined with water and/or moisture will produce deadly hydrogen cyanide gases.

The Hazmat team properly packaged the substance and watched over the home before turning the incident back over to the Wilmington Police Department.

According to police, a 42-year-old man was found dead inside the home. They believe he died as a result of ingesting or inhaling potassium cyanide, but investigators are waiting for results from an autopsy to confirm.

A friend of the victim called 911 and said he was trying to kill himself. The caller said the man worked at a chemical lab, "so he could have gotten anything - arsenic, lead - any chemical he wanted."

Copyright 2012 WECT. All rights reserved.