Austrian police seize drugs in raid on Kazakh team hotel

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian police said on Thursday they seized medicines in a raid on the Kazakh team's hotel rooms at the biathlon World Championships, while the head of the team's national federation said the substances in question had been approved for use.

Wednesday's late-night raid followed the seizure last month of a box containing used syringes, drug ampoules and International Biathlon Union event accreditations at a petrol station near the Italian border, police said in a statement.

Documents found in the box indicated its contents could be "assigned to" Kazakhstan's biathlon team, they said.

During the raid at the hotel, in which 30 officers took part, "numerous medical products and medicines" were seized and blood and urine samples taken, police added.

A spokesman for the Kazakh team told the sports.kz website the country's athletes had been authorised to used the substances seized.

"Medicines have been taken from our doctor. But we have approvals for all of those medicines. Police have confirmed they are being tested now. The tests will show whether or not they are banned," the National Biathlon Federation of Kazakhstan's secretary general, Manas Ussenov, told the website.

"Our team have also been tested for doping and submitted DNA samples. We are also awaiting the results of those tests," he said, adding that the results of tests performed on the contents of the box were also pending.

Police said the investigation was continuing.

The championships are taking place in the Austrian Alpine resort of Hochfilzen.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty; editing by John Stonestreet)