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Salisbury (dpa) – The potentially lethal poisoning of a couple in southern England four months after the attack on the Skripals raises new fears among the inhabitants of the region.
"We should not underestimate the effect of the shocking news of a second incident as serious in such a short time," warned Wiltshire County Police Chief Kier Pritchard, last night. Above all, uncertainty as to the manner and location of the renewed contamination raises uncertainties. According to a report, investigators are investigating whether the container for neurotoxin used in Skripal's case could have inadvertently put the sick Britons at risk of death.
Late in the evening of Wednesday, Scotland Yard announced that two Britons collapsed in the south of England over the weekend had also been poisoned by Nowitschok. The couple in danger is in the same hospital in the city of Salisbury, where the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal (67) and his daughter Julia (33) have already been treated.
Instead of the theory of a second attack, investigators examine the suspicion of so-called cross-contamination according to the Press Association Press Association. The container for storage of the nerve agent used before the attack against the Skripals has not been found so far, said a government source of AP. It is therefore conceivable that the couple came into contact with the same object.
In response to the recent case of poisoning, the Government Security Council, known as the Cobra Committee, meets Thursday for a crisis meeting led by British Interior Minister Sajid Javid . In charge of the investigation is involved with more than 100 forces of the anti-terrorism section of the police.
The population is waiting for answers – many people in the area are worried about their own health, as well as some areas of Salisbury and the couple's home, Amesbury, about 13 kilometers to the north, were closed as a precautionary measure. Although the health authority did not initially badume that there was a "significant risk to health" for the public, general skepticism could not dispel it.
Already in March, parts of downtown Salisbury had been sealed after the scripts were poisoned with the war officer. They were sitting unconscious on a park bench. Britain has accused Russia of being behind the crime as a brain. Nowitschok had been manufactured in the former Soviet Union.
The badbadination of the Skripal triggered a serious international crisis. Many Western states, including Germany, have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. Moscow responded with similar measures. The Skripals are now living in an unknown place.
Police say the now poisoned victims are a 45-year-old and a 44-year-old from the area. First, the woman collapsed on Saturday, later the doctors had to bring the man to the hospital. Scientists now check if the poison is identical to the substance used in the scripts. Under the term Nowitschok directs the entire group of some nervous poison, which shows after skin contact or inhalation within 30 seconds to two minutes the consequences to the victim.
The couple reportedly visited an event in a church before falling ill on Saturday. Officials initially badumed that both could have taken contaminated heroin or crack and are therefore in critical condition.
The nearby Porton Down Chemical Weapons Research Laboratory has been studied. There, the Nowitschok neurotoxin had been identified in the Skripal case. Independent investigations by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the result at that time.
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