Police in South Korea are receiving numerous reports of suspicious international packages containing an unspecified hazardous material.

The reports started on Thursday and they continued on Friday and Saturday. Most of these packages are coming from Taiwan.

In some cases, the packages contain harmless items like 'lip balm' or are empty.

Regional authorities have warned people not to open such parcels from unknown senders and advised them to report any suspicious packages to the police or firefighters.

The police will decide whether to investigate further based on substance analysis. The possibility of terrorism is considered low, as no hazardous material has been detected so far.

There is suspicion that this might be a "brushing scam" where sellers send unordered products to boost sales and ratings on online shopping sites.

Authorities called for vigilance against suspicious international parcels. They said the color of such packages could be yellow or black, and they could have "CHUNGHWA POST" written on them. The sender could be P.O. Box 100561-003777, Taipei Taiwan.

Authorities have asked people to be vigilant against packages with specific characteristics and they have traced the parcels back to China with a stopover in Taiwan. Taiwan's customs agency is cooperating with South Korean police to investigate the delivery route of these suspicious packages.