U.K. police: 2 more exposed to nerve agent that sickened spy

LONDON — For the second time in four months, two people lie critically ill in England’s Salisbury District Hospital after being exposed to a military-grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, British police confirmed late Wednesday.

The country’s chief counterterrorism police officer said tests at Britain’s defense laboratory had confirmed what many residents feared — a man and woman in their 40s had been poisoned with Novichok, the same toxin that almost killed a former Russian spy and his daughter.

Local police declared the case a “major incident” Wednesday, four days after the man and woman were found collapsed at a residential building in Amesbury, 8 miles from Salisbury, where Sergei Skirpal and his adult daughter, Yulia Skirpal, were poisoned.

Police said it was not clear whether there was a link between the two cases.

After a lengthy treatment, the Skripals were released from the hospital and continue to recover in an undisclosed location, protected by British authorities. Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Russia for the nerve agent assault against the Skripals.

Police said officers were initially called Saturday morning about a collapsed woman, then were summoned back in the evening after a man fell ill at the same property. They were identified by friends as 44year-old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year-old Charlie Rowley.

Sam Hobson, 29, a friend of Rowley and Sturgess, told the Daily Telegraph that the day before the two fell ill, they all visited sites in Salisbury near where the Skripals were found.