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Two British citizens are seriously ill after being exposed to Novichok, the same nerve agent that shot dead a former Russian agent and his daughter in March, said Britain's top counter-terrorism officer on Wednesday
. A 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man were hospitalized after being found sick Saturday in Amesbury, a few miles from Salisbury where former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked in March. [19659002] "I received test results from Porton Down [military research centre] that show that both people were exposed to Novichok's neurotoxic agent," Neil Basu, the oldest Great Britain anti-terrorist officer
. to poison the Skripals with Novichok – a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Army during the Cold War – in what is the first known offensive use of such a chemical weapon on European soil since the Second World War.
Russia denied involvement in their poisoning.
UK The Anti-Terrorism Police is currently conducting the investigation, although Mr Basu said that it was not clear how the two people came into contact with the nerve agent or the drug. if they had been specifically targeted.
"I have no intelligence or evidence that they have been targeted in any way," Mr. Basu said. "Amesbury is located seven miles (11 km) north of Salisbury, where Skripal – a former colonel of Russian military intelligence who has betrayed dozens of British spy agents MI6 His daughter was found Unconscious on a bench on March 4.
A hundred anti-terrorist agents are working on the case and the police cordoned off at least five different zones, including a park and property in Salisbury, L & # 39; March attack provoked the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as allies in Europe and the United States, with the view of Prime Minister Theresa May that Moscow was responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent
The mystery surrounds the attack and the motive is not clear, as it is the logic of the use of the nerve agent
The mystery surrounds the attack and the motive is not clear, as it is the logic of the use of such an exotic nervous agent that has openly ties with the Soviet Army during the Cold War
Russia, which currently hosts the World Cup soccer, denied any involvement in the March incident and suggested that Britain had led the attack to fan the Anti-Moscow hysteria. Moscow also fought back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning Britain's knowledge that Russia was responsible and offering rival interpretations, including that this amounted to a conspiracy by the British secret service. Russian officials asked why Russia wanted to attack an aging defector who was pardoned and then exchanged for a Kremlin-approved spy exchange in 2010.
Novichok again
Health leaders said Wednesday that the risk to the public was low. the exposure of two people apparently unrelated to espionage or to the former Soviet Union will fuel fears that traces of the nerve agent remain in the region
"As As the country's chief medical officer, I want to reassure the public about the risk The spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said that the government's emergency intervention committee had met to discuss Incident: Interior Minister, Sajid Javid, will chair a meeting of the Emergency Response Committee on Thursday.
"The Amesbury Inquiry is going on and we have to give the police the space they need to establish the facts, "said Mr. Javid.]" My thoughts right now are with the two people affected. The priority of governments is the safety of residents in the area, but as clearly stated Public Health England, the risk to the general public is low.
After Skripal intoxication, police investigators wear protective suits. the ancient city of the English Salisbury Cathedral. Mr. Basu warned that the police in protective gear would return to the area.
Paramedics were called Saturday morning to a house in Amesbury after the woman, named Dawn Sturgess, collapsed and returned later in the day. Charlie Rowley has also fallen ill.
The two people, who are being treated at Salisbury District Hospital, were reported to have initially taken heroin or crack from a contaminated lot, the police said. poisoned with Novichok.
"We are not able to say if the nerve agent came from the same batch that the Skripals were exposed to," said Basu. "The possibility that these two investigations may be related is clearly an investigation for us."
The hospital is where the Skripal also spent weeks in critical condition before slowly recovering and being released.
Yulia told Reuters in May: "We are so fortunate to have both survived this assassination attempt. Our recovery has been slow and extremely painful. "
Russia stated that it did not have such nerve agents, that it did not develop Novichok and that President Vladimir Putin rejected as nonsense the idea that Moscow would have poisoned M Skripal and his daughter
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