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Investigators lead a race against time in Salisbury, to find the object in contact with which a couple was poisoned at Novitchok, a case that relaunch tensions between London and Russia, four months after the poisoning of Skripal
The 45-year-old man and the 44-year-old woman, hospitalized in a critical condition, were exposed to poison "after handling a contaminated object," police said, unable to say at this point it comes from the same batch that had poisoned the ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on 4 March.
"It could be a syringe, a small surgical container (…) that can easily go unnoticed," said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert interviewed by AFP.
According to a scientist working for the British government interviewed by the BBC, "Novitchok is so toxic that it can pbad through the skin and does not need to be ingested (to take effect)." [19659002Investigatorsconduct"systematicandmeticuloussearchesinseveralplaces"tofindthisobjectthepolicesaidSixplacesfrequentedbythecoupleattheendoflastweekwereclosedtothepublicThehomelessshelterwherethepoisonedwomanlivesidentifiedbyafriendasDawnSturgesswasevacuatedThursday
Anne Zhang, a 37-year-old mother, worried about her two children, the youngest of whom recently went to a Salibury park frequented Friday by the sick and now surrounded by a police cordon
"The park is now closed, so I'm worried yes, I'm afraid she touched something," she told AFP. "Now, my kids are not going that side of the city, they are going to school, they are going home and that's all."
Waiting to find out where and how the couple was contaminated, the authorities ordered the public not to pick up unknown objects.
The risk to the public remains "low", according to the public health agency Public Health England (PHE). But she nonetheless advised "as a precaution" to those who went to the same places as the victims to wash their clothes and clean the rest of their belongings.
– Diplomatic Tensions Renewed –
New poisonings remain a problem "possibility," said Helen Pickup, a 49-year-old mother, interviewed by AFP on Friday. "But you can not ask people to stay at home, life must go on normally."
This new poisoning revives tensions between London and Moscow, accused by the United Kingdom of being behind Sergei's attack Skripal and his daughter
"It is totally unacceptable that our citizens are deliberate or accidental targets or that poison is poured into our streets, our parks, our cities," said the Minister of the Interior, Sajid Javid in Parliament, calling on the Russian state to "explain."
"Using a persistent nerve agent in a civilian area is extraordinary, it is a war crime, it is an absolutely heinous act of terror led by a state claiming to be a normal state, "the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, blasted out at the BBC's microphone.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, denounced Thursday the "dirty political games started by some forces in London". "The government of Theresa May and her representatives will have to apologize," she warned.
The Russian Embbady in London described the British attitude as "disconcerting". "Russia has proposed a joint investigation on Salisbury from the beginning, the proposal remains valid, instead of cooperating, London prefers to create confusion and intimidate its own citizens," tweeted the Embbady.
London could seek the support of its allies against Moscow, while a visit of President Donald Trump is scheduled in a week in the UK and a NATO summit will be held on July 11 and 12.
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