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London – The mystery surrounds Wednesday the hospitalization of two people exposed to an "unknown substance" and found unconscious in Amesbury, a neighboring city of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was the victim of an attempt to poisoning in March.
The two patients " are in critical condition " and " are receiving treatment for an alleged exposure to an unknown substance at Salisbury Hospital ", stated in a statement. reported the Wiltshire County Police who said they considered the event as a " major incident ".
The two people, a man and a woman, both in their forties, were found unconscious Saturday, June 30 in a house in the city of Amesbury (southern England), located about ten kilometers from Salisbury.
In Salisbury, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were victims of an attempt to poison the innervating officer on 4 March, an incident attributed by the United Kingdom to Russia and that led to a diplomatic crisis.
In Amesbury, the police originally hypothesized contamination from heroin or crack absorption, but said that additional tests now take place " to establish the nature of the substance that led these patients to become sick ".
" We keep an open mind when the circumstances of the incident ," she added. " There is no reason to think that this is related " to the Skripal case, said Commissioner Angus Macpherson, according to statements made by the BBC.
– Security Lanyards –
Several security lanyards were set up in places where the two 40 year-olds would have been able to go before they became infected, and the police presence was reinforced in the cities of Amesbury and Salisbury.
The Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury was closed to the public, according to local Speyer radio. Police also positioned themselves in front of the Amesbury Baptist Church, The Guardian reported.
The public health agency Public Health England (PHE) estimated that this event posed " no significant health risk to the general public ".
This opinion will be " continuously rebadessed, based on information known ," warned a spokesman for PHE quoted by the agency Press Association.
The Salisbury Hospital remained open to the public on Wednesday, " as usual ", and patients were required to attend their medical appointments.
On March 4, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in the middle of a shopping center and hospitalized in critical condition at Salisbury Hospital. They had both been victims of an attempted poisoning with an innervating agent of the Novitchok family, according to the British government.
The first officer to rescue them, Nick Bailey, was also contaminated and hospitalized in serious condition. All three had been treated for several weeks before being able to leave the hospital.
– Long clean-up operations –
The police then squared the city of Salisbury with the help of the army. Several police cordones had been installed, particularly around the former spy's house, as well as at Salisbury Cemetery.
According to Scotland Yard, " the highest concentration of neurotoxic agent was on the front door " from Sergei Skripal's home. Traces of poison had been found in " other places ", including a restaurant and pub Salisbury frequented by the former Russian spy and his daughter on March 4. Chemical cleansing work, which may last for a number of months was carried out at nine sites by specialists.
The authorities had called on people who visited the contaminated premises identified with " to wash their clothes " and to clean their personal belongings, including cell phones, with wipes.
London pointed the responsibility of Moscow, which denied any involvement, in this attempt at poisoning.
This event culminated in a diplomatic crisis between the two countries with the largest wave of cross-border expulsions of diplomats from history between the United Kingdom and its allies on the one hand, and Russia on the other .
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