Disaster strikes despite clean-up costing millions

NINE locations in and around Salisbury were sealed off for a major clean-up operation costing tens of millions of pounds after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal four months ago.

Only four of those sites have been fully decontaminated and the other five remain closed.

Around 190 personnel from the Army and RAF were drafted in to carry out the specialist cleaning of areas tainted by the novichok nerve agent. The work has involved a process of testing for any remaining traces, removing items which may have been contaminated, chemical cleaning and then retesting.

The sites – three of which were in Salisbury city centre – were sealed off from the public with secure fencing and protected by patrolling police and security guards. The Maltings shopping precinct – near where former Russian spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on March 4 – was the first site to reopen on May 21.

The ambulance stations in Salisbury and Amesbury have also since reopened. The Bourne Hill office block, which houses council and police staff, has been decontaminated but is still closed for remedial work.

Italian restaurant Zizzi and the Mill pub, which were visited by the Skripals the day they collapsed – remain sealed off, as does Mr Skripal’s £3 0,000 home. Also locked down are the Ashley Wood recovery compound where his car was taken, and the home of police officer Nick Bailey who was one of the first on the scene. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs expects the clean-up to cost ‘tens of millions’.