Witness to latest Salisbury incident: ‘I was told victims were Russians’

A woman who sat next to one of two people who fell ill prompting a Novichok scare at a Salisbury restaurant has said that police told her the two victims were Russian.

Amanda Worne, 47, from Yapton, near Arundel, West Sussex, said that “armageddon” broke out as police and the emergency services responded to the incident at the Prezzo restaurant in High Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, at 6:45pm on Sunday.

A man aged 42 and a woman aged 30 became unwell at the restaurant. Roads were cordoned off and police and 0 Dawn Sturgess: fatally poisoned by nerve agent

paramedics wearing protective suits were deployed amid heightened tensions following the deadly Novichok attack in the city. Police said because of concerns that the pair had been exposed to an unknown substance “a highly precautionary approach” had been taken but later confirmed that Novichok was not involved.

Mrs Worne said: “We were told by a police officer there were two Russians showing symptoms of the Novichok virus.”

The Italian restaurant is a short walk from Queen Elizabeth Gardens, which was until recently closed off after 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess was fatally poisoned by the nerve agent in June.

Also nearby is Zizzi, the Italian restaurant where former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia visited before they were taken ill in March.