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What triggered concern about the incident in Amesbury, Wiltshire?
A couple living in Amesbury, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, were taken to the hospital on Saturday night. The initial suspicion, according to the police, was that it was drug related, but the doctors were unable to identify the substance.
The same hospital was treating Sergei and Julia Skripal, the Russian couple referred to Salisbury by the Novichok neurotropic agent in March. On the night of Tuesday to Tuesday, Wiltshire police, sensitive after the Salisbury attack, said it was "a major incident."
Police and the government said that they kept an open mind: this could be something "sinister" related to the Skripal attack or there could be a totally different explanation . They said that they were waiting for the test result in the mysterious substance.
At the end of the evening, police announced that tests showed that it was Novichok, a type of nerve agent originally developed in Russia. Hamish of Bretton-Gordon, former commander of the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear regiment of the United Kingdom, said the key was the proximity of Amesbury to Salisbury. 19659008] "If this had happened elsewhere, it is doubtful whether anyone has paid much attention," he said. "The authorities are worried that this may be a collateral damage to Salisbury."
What does the police have to do next?
The priority of the investigation is to establish how the pair came into contact with the neurotoxic agent, to Neil Basu, Deputy Commissioner of Special Operations at Scotland Yard. He said that about 100 detectives from the Counter Terrorism Policing Network were investigating, alongside colleagues from the Wiltshire Police
million. Basu said that a number of sites in Amesbury and Salisbury, areas that they think they visited before falling ill, were cordoned off.
In a gesture to rebadure the public, he said that there was "no evidence". "That one of them recently visited one of the decontaminated sites following the attack on the Skripals." Mr. Basu said that "there would be a police presence." increased, with officers wearing protective gear while they work on a number of sites
What are the possible links?
A government source said the authorities had not been able to check object used to deposit the Novichok in the attack against the Skripals and it is possible that the latest victims came into contact with this object.
This could raise the possibility that at least one another area in the center of Salisbury was contaminated with the nerve agent but it had not yet been identified.
Mr. Basu stated that the investigators "are not able to tell if the neurotoxic agent comes from the same batch to which the Skripals were expo It will be up to the scientists to determine if the Novichok comes from the same lot as the one used against the Skripals.
He added: "We know what the nerve agent is, but we do not know what the transmission was."
M. Basu said that the police had "no information or evidence" that the couple had been targeted. "There is nothing in their background to suggest that."
What will be the diplomatic repercussions?
The British government and intelligence agencies have already blamed the Russian government for being behind the attacking Skripal and described the first use of a nerve agent on European soil since World War II as irresponsible .
The government may designate the latest victims as further evidence of carelessness.
The last twist comes less than a week before a NATO summit in Brussels to discuss how the transatlantic alliance should deal with Russia and before Donald Trump's meeting with Vladimir Poutine. – Guardian / PA
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