U.K. anti-terror police join ‘unknown substance’ probe
British counterterrorism police were investigating Wednesday after two people were left in critical condition, exposed to an unknown substance a few miles from where a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent.
The Wiltshire Police force declared a “major incident’’ after a man and a woman in their 40s were hospitalized after being found unconscious Saturday at a residential building in Amesbury, eight miles (13 kilometres) from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4.
Friends named the couple as Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45. Police did not release their names, but confirmed their ages and said they were British nationals from the local area.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said that “given the recent events in Salisbury,’’ counterterrorism officers were working with local police on the investigation. British media reported that samples of the mystery substance had been sent to the Porton Down defence research laboratory for testing.
Police cordoned off a home and other places the pair visited before falling ill, including a nearby church and a pharmacy, but health officials said there was not believed to be a wider risk to the public.
A major incident is a designation allowing British authorities to mobilize more than one
emergency agency.
The emergency services’ response echoes that in the case of the Skripals, whose illness initially baffled doctors after they were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. Scientists at Porton Down concluded they had been poisoned with Novichok, a type of nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Britain accuses Russia of poisoning the Skripals, a claim Moscow strongly denies. The poisoning sparked a Cold Warstyle diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, including
the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from both sides.
The two Amesbury victims were being treated at Salisbury District Hospital, where the Skripals spent weeks in critical condition.
Police said authorities initially believed the latest victims might have taken a contaminated batch of heroin or crack cocaine.
“However, further testing is now ongoing to establish the substance which led to these patients becoming ill,’’ said Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills. “At this stage it is not yet
clear if a crime has been committed. ‘’
One line of inquiry is whether they came into contact with residue from the Novichok used to poison the Skripals.
Sergei Skripal, 67, is a former Russian intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for Britain before coming to the U.K. as part of a 2010 prisoner swap. He had been living quietly in Salisbury, a cathedral city 90 miles (145 kilometres) southwest of London, when he was struck down along with his 33-yearold daughter Yulia, who was visiting him.