Britons exposed to nerve agent

A BRITISH couple left critically ill in an English village were exposed to novichok – the same nerve agent used in the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the nearby city of Salisbury this year, police said on Wednesday.

Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the incident after tests at the Porton Down defence laboratory confirmed the nature of the substance, which Britain says is a Soviet-made military grade nerve agent.

“It’s the same nerve agent. Whether we can ever tell if it’s the same batch will be up to scientists to determine,” Neil Basu, head of counter-terrorism police, told reporters.

“The priority for the investigation team now is to establish how these two people have come into contact with this nerve agent,” he said.

Basu said there was no evidence to suggest that the man and the woman, named locally as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, “were targeted in any way”.

The two fell ill on Saturday in Amesbury in southwestern England, close to where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on a bench on March 4 in an incident that sparked a bitter diplomatic crisis.

“The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of inquiry for us,” Basu said.

But Basu said there was no evidence the man and the woman had “recently visited any of the sites that were decontaminated” after the poisoning of the Skripals.

“This remains a low risk to the general public,” he said.

“We’re satisfied that if anyone was exposed to that level of nerve agent by now they would be showing symptoms.”

The 44-year-old woman

THE POSSIBILITY THAT THESE TWO INVESTIGATIONS MIGHT BE LINKED IS CLEARLY A LINE OF INQUIRY FOR US HEAD OF POLICE NEIL BASU

collapsed first and an ambulance was called at around 0915 GMT, while the 45-yearold man fell ill later.

Police had initially assumed that the two had consumed a contaminated batch of drugs.

But samples from both patients were sent to Porton Down on Monday “due to concern over the symptoms the man and woman were displaying,” Basu said.

Both are still in a critical condition and are at Salisbury District Hospital – the same facility where the Skripals were treated.

Police launched two helplines for those worried about possible contamination.