Collapsed pair ‘not linked to Russia’
flowers, teddies and balloons have been left near the property on Ardbeg Road where Alesha MacPhail’s body was found after she went missing from her grandmother’s home at 6.25am on Monday. TINY electronic trackers small enough to attach to a flying insect are the latest weapon being used to stave off an Asian hornet invasion that threatens Britain’s honeybees.
By tagging the buzzing predators with the devices, scientists have been able to pursue them to their hidden nests.
Once located, the nests and hornets within them can be destroyed – allowing nearby bees to continue pollinating in peace. POLICE are continuing to search the home of a nurse arrested on suspicion of the murder of eight babies and the attempted murder of six others.
Officers are said to have arrived at the home of Lucy Letby, 28, around 6am on Tuesday, hours before police announced a female healthcare professional had been arrested in a probe into the deaths of 17 infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The arrest comes as part of a long-running investigation by Cheshire Constabulary following a high number of baby deaths at the hospital’s neonatal unit.
Officers were also seen at COUNTER-TERRORISM police are investigating after a couple were left in a critical condition when they were exposed to a mystery substance.
The pair, in their 40s, were found unconscious in a property in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, Wiltshire, on Saturday.
It is around eight miles from where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in March, but it is not thought that the individuals are linked in any way to Russia or to the Skripals.
A meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee took place at official level in the Cabinet Office on Wednesday to discuss the events.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This is an incident which understandably is being treated with the utmost seriousness.
“Ministers and the Prime Minister are being kept updated and there was a meeting this morning of officials to receive updates on the facts of the situation.”
Wiltshire Police initially thought that the couple had taken contaminated crack cocaine or heroin, but then decided to carry out further tests and declared a major her parents’ property in Hereford later on Tuesday.
Detectives launched an investigation into infant deaths in May last year, initially looking at the deaths of 15 babies between June 2015 and June 2016.
Police said the probe had widened to include 17 deaths and 15 non-fatal collapses of incident. It is understood that tests are being carried out on the substance at the Government chemical weapons research laboratory at Porton Down.
The Metropolitan Police, who lead the national counter-terrorism network, said in a statement: “Given the recent events in Salisbury, officers from the counter-terrorism network are working jointly with colleagues from Wiltshire Police regarding the incident in Amesbury.
“As Wiltshire Police have stated, they are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding the incident and will update the public as soon and as regularly as possible.” babies between March 2015 and July 2016.
Detective Inspector Paul Hughes said the arrest was a “significant step forward” in what was a “highly complex and very sensitive investigation”.
The hospital said it is “confident the unit is safe to continue in its current form”.
The man and woman from Amesbury are in a critical condition in Salisbury District Hospital.
It is believed that one of the last places they were seen in public was a family fun day at Amesbury Baptist Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The church is one of a number of locations in Amesbury and Salisbury which has been cordoned off by police.
Church secretary Roy Collins said: “Last weekend we held a community fundraiser and we understand this may well be the last event this couple went to in public.
“We are all quite puzzled and shocked – naturally the connection with Salisbury and recent events there mean there is a heightened public interest.
“We are praying for the couple. One of our members knows them and clearly there are concerns for them and any others in the community.
“They are not church members or regulars.”
Mr Collins said around 200 people attended the event, including many families and children, but “nobody else has suffered any ill-effects”.