Spy looked unsteady on feet as he drank in pub

THE poisoned Russian spy was unsteady on his feet in a pub less than an hour before he was found collapsed, a witness has revealed.

Sergei Skripal went for a drink with his daughter at 3pm at The Mill in Salisbury after eating at a Zizzi Italian restaurant.

In the pub, they ordered two glasses of wine before Mr Skripal went to use the toilet. The witness, who did not want to be named, said that when he returned he appeared as if he was drunk.

He said Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia then left immediately without finishing their drinks.

‘I didn’t really notice them when they came in,’ he said. ‘They got their drinks from the bar and sat down. After a short time the man went to use the toilet. They are upstairs. I noticed him when he came back down as he wasn’t walking properly.

‘He looked like he was drunk. I thought the staff might have to ask him to leave.

‘He came back to the table and didn’t sit down, he and the woman just left straight away.

‘It was strange, but it makes you wonder now if the poison was starting to take effect then.’ Mr Skripal and Yulia were found in a ‘catatonic’ state on a bench around the corner from the pub just after 4pm, and rushed to hospital.

They are understood to have arrived in the city centre at around 1.30pm on Sunday. They had lunch at Zizzi, sharing garlic bread followed by a seafood risotto each. They then went to the Mill, which was sealed off by police on Monday.

The pub appears to have been a favourite venue of the close-knit family, who were said to visit regularly. One photograph taken there shows Mr Skripal – wearing a checked shirt and a denim waistcoat – sitting on the mezzanine level of the two-storey pub enjoying a beer.

Another shows his son Alexander, who died last year aged 43, sitting outside drinking a pint. The pictures are believed to have been taken around two years ago.