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Novichok is a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. (AFP)
British police scrambled Thursday to determine how a couple was exposed to the same nerve agent was used on a former Russian spy earlier this year, leaving them seriously ill.
The couple was sick Saturday in the village of Amesbury, near the town of Salisbury, where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was found slumped on a bench on March 4 in an incident that triggered a diplomatic crisis with Russia. "The possibility that these two investigations can be linked is clearly an investigation for us," said Neil Basu, chief of the British police announced Wednesday night that tests on the couple, locally baptized Dawn Sturgess, aged 44-year-old, and Charlie Rowley, 45, revealed that they had been exposed to Novichok, but that could not be said to sharpen Novichok is a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The exposure of a seemingly random British couple to the nerve agent spreads fear across the normally quiet city in southwestern England once again.
– Low Risk & # 39; –
Interior Minister Sajid Javid will chair an emergency meeting on Thursday. investigation of the incident.
Basu also insisted that he "remains a low risk to the general public," saying "we are satisfied that if anyone was exposed to this level of nerve agent now they would show symptoms. "
However, many questions remain about the source of the contamination and why the tests were done on the couple only Monday, two days after they were sick.
"The priority of the investigation team is now to establish how two people came int" We have no idea what could contain the nerve agent at that time, "he said, urging members of the public not to touch anything if they did not know what that meant.
Basu said that he was not going to say anything. there was no evidence to suggest that the couple "was targeted in any way"
– "Hallucinating" –
Sam Hobson, a 29-year-old man, told AFP He was a friend of the pair and had spent time with them when they became sick.
"I came around Charlie's house in the morning and there were plenty of ambulances outside, and his girlfriend was being kidnapped.
"She was complaining of a headache in the morning and she went to the bathroom to take a bath and he heard a thud and she was there having a fit, foam coming out of his mouth. "
hospitalized around 9:15 GMT, and Hobson then joined Rowley as he went to the village to visit a pharmacy and get food from a church, when Rowley comp "He was sweating, dribbling, and you could not talk to him," says Hobson.
"He was making odd noises and he was rocking back and forth and there was no answer from him, he did not even know I was there. It's like he's in another world, hallucinated. "
Hobson said that he called the ambulance around 1430 GMT.
Hobson also said that the couple had visited Salisbury on Friday, speculating that" they had to touch something that was [19659004] Basu stated that there was no evidence that the man and the woman had "recently visited one of the sites that were decontaminated" after the poisoning of Skripals.
The police initially badumed that both had used contaminated drugs. But the samples from both patients were sent Monday to the Porton Down Defense Lab "due to the concern over the symptoms," said Basu,
both in critical condition.
Police launched two helplines for those who were worried about possible contamination
Police called for calm but also said that anyone who had visited the "police station" said that One of the five sites that the man and the women went on Friday and Saturday must wash the clothes worn at that time and wipe the personal items.
The sites, which have now been cordoned off, are a homeless park and inn in Salisbury, as well as a pharmacy, church and Amesbury House
Chemistry professor Andrea Sella has said that nerve agents like Novichok were "designed to be quite persistent", suggesting that it was possible that the couple came into contact with the original lot.
– "A Place So Quiet" –
Resident Natalie Smyth, 27, told AFP she saw firefighters and ambulances arriving home on Saturday.
"It's so strange, it's such a quiet place," she said, adding that emergency services personnel wore protective clothing.
Skripal, 67, and her 33 – year – old daughter, Yulia, visiting Moscow, were treated for a long time before being released from the hospital.
They suspected An agent may have been smeared on a liquid door-knob.
Moscow rejected British accusations of involvement in Skripal intoxication, which sparked a diplomatic crisis that has saw Russia and the West expel dozens of diplomats. tat
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed .)
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