Nowitschok in Salisbury: What do we know about the case of the poisoned couple



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At 10:15 the first call is received at the emergency call center. Dawn Sturgess, 44, is no longer reactive, the foam escapes from her mouth, she collapses. An ambulance takes her to the hospital. Five hours later, the second call – even his friend Charlie Rowley is not feeling well. He sweats, opens his eyes wide, breaks down. That's what friends say later. He must also go to the clinic

Two cases near Salisbury, south-south of last Saturday. They would probably have remained medial without meaning. But Wednesday, the British authorities come to a surprising conclusion: Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were poisoned with Nowitschok

C is the stuff with which Mars in an attack on the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julija perpetrated was – also in Salisbury. Britain has blamed Russia – the case has severely affected the relations of the two countries.

The writers fought for weeks at the hospital, which now houses the poisoned couple. What destabilizes the people of Wiltshire: The former double agent's home is only a few kilometers from where the youngest victims lived.

What's behind this case? Is there always a danger? And new tensions threaten between London and Moscow? The Overview

The Victims

According to British media reports, the victims stayed only a couple for a few months. Sturgess lived with 45-year-old Rowley in the city of Amesbury, a few miles from Salisbury, where the former spy Skripal

was living. However, British security authorities badume that, unlike Skripal , the couple do not specifically target Nowitschok. was attacked (learn more about the poison) – but by chance came into contact with the substance. The couple has no relationship with security agencies or secret services. The couple is unemployed according to the Guardian.


  Couple house in Amesbury


AFP

Couple house in Amesbury

The question remains to know where they were in contact with the poison. A friend told the Guardian that he and the couple had been in a park in Salisbury the day before. They would have drunk something in the sun there. Subsequently, they visited various stores to buy, among other things, the paint with which they wanted to dye their hair in the national colors for the England match at the World Cup. However, the symptoms did not occur until the next day

. According to other reports, the couple attended an event in a church on Saturday. The UK authorities are not yet aware of the exact location. Police have identified five areas in Amesbury and Salisbury, which need to be the subject of further investigation.

Contamination

The new case Nowitschok causes insecurity in the population. After all, the two localities of Amesbury and Salisbury are only 13 kilometers apart – and it is unclear exactly where Dawn Sturgess and his friend Charlie Rowley could have poisoned them.

In March, police closed parts of downtown Salisbury as a result of the Skripal case. Previously, the former Russian agent with his daughter Julija had been found unconscious on a park bench in the city. A total of nine areas were consuming decontaminated for millions. There was no longer talk of a greater danger for the population. Even today, the health authority only speaks of a low risk to the public.

But there is a feeling of unease on the part of many on the ground: security authorities in the Skripal case have found the highest concentration of Nowitschok on his door knob. To date, we do not know how he was contaminated. An object or container has never been found. So the means of transportation could still be somewhere around.

Political reactions

Mistrust of the United Kingdom vis-à-vis Moscow has been enormous since the Skripal affair. That it is a renewed tension, is not predictable. Until now, however, there are no traces that lead to Russia in this case.

Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday in Berlin, prior to the meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, that the Salisbury affair was "deeply troubling". The police will now investigate everything.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, complained that from the beginning, Britain had no interest in conducting joint investigations into the Skripal case. He called the new case in Amesbury, to which Russia has no knowledge, "very disturbing".

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