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Salisbury (dpa) – The poisoned by the weapon The Nowitschok couple of southern England was probably not the victim of a targeted attack. British Secretary of Security Ben Wallace told the BBC channel.
Thursday night, Scotland Yard added that the two had been in contact with the nerve poison after being in contact with a contaminated object. This would have resulted in further tests.
The most recent victims, according to the police, are a 45-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman from the area. First, the woman collapsed Saturday in the Amesbury residential building, later the doctors had to take the man to the hospital within a few miles of Salisbury. According to a friend, the two were no longer accessible; The foam ran out of their mouths.
Police have now identified five areas in Amesbury and Salisbury, which will be examined. The couple had been in both places shortly before the illness. Anyone who has recently been to these areas should follow security measures, such as washing clothes and wiping cell phones.
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced in Berlin just before a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) that she would put all the levers into the investigation.
Just four months ago, former Russian double agent Sergej Skripal, 67, and his daughter Julia, 33, were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. After a long therapy, they live today in a secret place. London was accused of Moscow having been the brain of the plot. Nowitschok was made in the former Soviet Union, later he appeared in other countries.
Russia has described cases of poisoning with the explosive Novichok as a political intrigue of Britain. "We urge the (Prime Minister) Theresa May's government to end the intrigues with toxic chemicals and not to interfere with the investigation," said spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Thursday, Maria Sakharova. British security agencies should not participate in this dirty political game, she told the Tbad agency. Russia is ready to conduct joint investigations at any time.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This is a very disturbing news, and of course, this raises serious concerns." The Russian Embbady in the Netherlands said that Russia could not be behind the poisoning case in Amesbury. "Do you really think Russia is so stupid," still "to use the so-called" Nowitschok "just during the Football World Cup?" Tweeted the representation.
Nowitschok used in the scripts was very pure. "This increases the lifespan," said chemical weapons expert Ralf Trapp of the German news agency. According to Trapp, the substance was a highly purified agent from a laboratory that could last several years. Therefore, it is conceivable that in the new case, the couple involuntarily came into contact with Novitschok residues on a transport ship. "But until now, this is only a scenario and there are still some facts," said the toxicologist and chemist, who worked as an independent consultant for the organization for the Chemical Weapons Ban (OPCW) and the United Nations.
There is no reason to panic in the southern region of England. But we should rather avoid small containers on the ground, said Trapp. The container for the storage of the nerve agent used prior to the attack of the Skripals has not been found so far, reported the PA news agency.
The couple in danger is in the same hospital in the city of Salisbury, where the scripts were processed. In response to this new case, the Government Security Council, the Cobra Committee, met for an emergency meeting on Thursday.
In March, parts of downtown Salisbury were sealed after the scripts were poisoned with the officer of war. The badbadination triggered a serious international crisis. Many Western states, including Germany, have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. Moscow responded with similar measures.
After the recent incident, some areas of Salisbury and the couple's place of residence were closed as a precautionary measure. Residents asked more information from the authorities. Among other things, the couple would have attended an event in a church before falling ill on Saturday. Officials initially badumed that both could have taken medication.
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