Salisbury welcomes royal couple on visit to boost recovery of city
Hundreds turned out to welcome the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall on a visit to Salisbury following the nerve agent attack.
The royal couple’s visit was arranged to support the recovery programme under way in the Wiltshire city.
There have been weeks of disruption as police investigated the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33.
The pair were left fighting for their lives in hospital after being found unconscious on a park bench in the city on 4 March after being poisoned by a nerve agent. They have since been discharged from hospital.
Local leaders have been encouraging tourists and shoppers to return to the picturesque medieval town. The royal couple met workers in a shopping centre which re-opened a few weeks ago after a major clean-up operation, and operators of market stalls near the bench, now removed, where the Skripals were found.
They were met by hundreds of people waving flags including children from 17 schools.
Jessicafulton,fromsalisbury said: “I think their visit boosts moraleandhopefullywillbring people back to the city, we need tourists to survive.”
Thegovernmenthasaccused Russia of being behind the attack but Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for the incident.