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An urgent investigation is underway to find out how a British couple was left seriously ill by the Novichok neurological agent, the same military-grade poison that nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter there are four month. Counter-Terrorist Officer Neil Basu announced that chemical warfare experts at the famous Porton Down Laboratory had established that Novichok had caused the collapse in Wiltshire of British Dawn Sturgess, 44, of Salisbury, and Charlie Rowley, 45 years old, from Amesbury
They got sick at home on Saturday, 8 miles (12km) from Salisbury's home of Sergei Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, and his daughter Yulia. They were attacked with booby novichok at their gateway in March.
Britain holds Russia responsible for the attack on the Skripals in an incident that led to widespread criticism of the Kremlin and embittered relations with the West. thought the drugs had caused Sturgess and Rowley's serious illness. But British security officials said on Wednesday that Porton Down test results showed that the Novichok, developed by the Russian army, was responsible for poisoning. They believed that the danger to the public posed by the highly toxic materials used in March had been cleaned up and had thus passed.
Basu said that investigators and scientists did not know how the British couple had been exposed to the nerve agent. Paramedics were first called to a house on Muggleton Road in Amesbury at 10:15 am Saturday after the collapse of Sturgess. Five hours later Rowley fell ill.
They were taken to the Salisbury District Hospital where the Skripals were treated.
Basu, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police who runs the police counterterrorism network, says: evaluation: it was thought that both patients had become ill after consuming drugs from a potentially contaminated lot.
"However … because of concerns raised by the symptoms of both man and woman, samples of both patients were sent to Porton Down" Following the detailed analysis of these samples , we can confirm that the man and the woman were exposed to the Novichok neurological agent, which was identified as the same neurotoxic agent that contaminated both Yulia and Sergei Skripal. "
Basu said Wednesday evening that no one else had complained of the symptoms associated with novichok poisoning.
All along Wednesday, after Wiltshire local police One incident Major was reported and, while the results of the Porton Down test were expected, several sites were cordoned off as a precaution while the exact movements of the couple were followed Friday from 22h.
Basu said that There was nothing in Sturgess or Rowley that suggests that they would be the target of a deliberate attack – they have no connection with the intelligence or security services. [19659002] Accompanied by Chief Lady Dame Sally Davies, and amid speculation, the British couple had been struck by Basu said: "I want to reassure the public, however, there is no evidence that the Man or woman recently visited one of the sites that were decontaminated as a result of attempted killings of Skripals. Sergei and Yulia Skripal. "
The Wiltshire area will see dozens of anti-terrorist investigators and others in deportation in the days to come." Basu said it would be up to scientists at Porton Down to determine whether the British couple was poisoned by the same batch of novichok used against the Skripals: "I understand that there will be a lot of speculation as to whether this incident is related to the events in Salisbury in March
" J & Will add that the complex investigation into the murder attempts of Yulia and Sergei remains ongoing and that the detectives continue to sift and evaluate all available evidence and follow all possible leads to identify the makers, for what remains unwise and "However, I must say that we are not able to say if the nerve agent came from the same batch to which the Skripals were exposed. The possibility that these two surveys may be related is clearly an investigative avenue for us. "
Davies said the risk to the public is still low." Domestic Secretary Sajid Javid will chair a meeting of the Cobra Government Committee.
Sam Hobson, 29, a friend of the couple, described how, Saturday morning, Sturgess became ill and was rushed to hospital.Later in the morning, Rowley also became ill.
He said both were hospitalized and that he regularly received calls from the authorities to check that he was fine.
Novichok refers to a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s to escape international restrictions on chemical weapons. other neurotoxic agents, they are organophosphorus compounds, but the chemicals used to manufacture them as well as their final structures are considered classified in the United Kingdom, in the United States is and in other countries.
The most potent substances are considered more deadly than VX, the deadliest familiar neurological agents, which include sarin, tabun and soman.
While novichok agents function in the same way, massively stimulating muscles and glands, a chemical weapons expert stated that the agents did not degrade rapidly in the environment and had additional toxicity that was not well understood. The treatment for exposure to Novichok would be the same as for other nerve agents, namely atropine, diazepam and potentially the drugs called oximes.
The chemical structures of Novichok agents were made public in 2008 by Vil Mirzayanov, a former Russian scientist living in United States, but the structures have never been publicly confirmed. It is thought that they can be manufactured in various forms, including in the form of dusty aerosols
Novichoks are known as binary agents because they only become lethal after mixing two components otherwise. harmless. According to Mirzayanov, they are 10 to 100 times more toxic than conventional neurotoxic agents.
While the laboratories used for police chemical weapons incidents have databases on nerve agents, few Russians the chemicals needed to make them
Hobson stated that he and the couple spent time in the gardens of Queen Elizabeth on Friday. "We were having a drink and relaxing in the sun," he says
. They visited a number of stores, including a Boots pharmacist to buy red, white and blue dyes to show their support for the English football team. , a mobile phone store and a store to buy alcohol. They bought food and visited a charity store to buy a blanket.
Hobson visited Rowley's house in Muggleston Road on Saturday morning. Sturgess, who lives in Salisbury, had spent the night there. "I saw a lot of ambulances there and [Sturgess] was released on a stretcher.It needed to be helped by her breathing," Hobson said. Rowley came out in tears. "They said that she needed a brain test."
After being taken to hospital, Hobson and Rowley went to Boots at Amesbury. Later, they went to a roast pork at the local Baptist church. The chemist and the church were sealed. Police also surrounded Raleigh Garden Green, where the roast pork took place Saturday afternoon.
Hobson said, "We went back home after the roast pork, we went to the hospital, then he started to sweat, his shirt was wet, he got up and He started to swing against the wall, his eyes were wide open and red, his pupils were like pinpricks, he started garbling incoherently and I could tell he was hallucinating. strange and acting like a zombie I phoned an ambulance. "
He said that the couple had been together for a few months and none had worked. Hobson said that they both had a child by other partners.
Neighbors expressed concern at the incident. Amy Ireland, 32, said the area was filled with firefighters, police and paramedics on Saturday. "We were coming back from my 10-year-old son's football show, there was a lot of excitement, some cords were put in place and people were pushed back," she said.
"People thought it was a gas leak at the beginning.Now we do not know what to think.It is very disturbing.My son is playing here on the green.Sixbury Premier, now this. "
The British investigation into the attack on the Skripals believes that the poison was smeared on the door of the victims' home no more than 24 hours before their collapse.
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