The Denver Post

Two more exposed to nerve agent Novichok

- By Matt Dunham and Jill Lawless Matt Dunham, The Associated Press

AMESBURY, ENGLAND» For the second time in four months, two people lie critically ill in England’s Salisbury District Hospital after being exposed to a militarygr­ade 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 the same toxin that almost killed a former Russian spy and his daughter.

“We can confirm that the man and woman have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which has been identified as the same nerve agent that contaminat­ed both Yulia and Sergei Skripal,” said Assistant Commission­er Neil Basu of Lonspecula­tion don’s Metropolit­an Police.

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 the Skripals were poisoned.

Basu said it was not clear whether there was a link between the two cases and whether the nerve agent came from the same batch that left the Skripals fighting for their lives.

“The possibilit­y that these two investigat­ions might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us,” he said, amid that the victims could have been sickened by residue from the poison used on the Skripals.

Basu said it was unclear whether the two were targeted, but there was “nothing in their background to suggest that at all.”

Residents of the area felt a grim sense of deja vu. Four months after their quiet corner of England was plunged into a Cold War-style saga of spies, chemical weapons and internatio­nal tensions, they wondered whether it was happening all over again.

“With the Russian attack happening not long ago, we just assumed the worst,” said student Chloe Edwards, who said police and fire engines descended on a quiet street of newly built homes in Amesbury on Saturday evening.

Edwards said she saw people in green suits — like those worn by forensics officers — and her family was told to stay indoors for several hours.

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. Police at first thought the two, identified by friends as 44-yearold Dawn Sturgess and 45year-old Charlie Rowley, had taken a contaminat­ed batch of heroin or crack.

Initially, the investigat­ion was led by local police, but Basu said counterter­rorism detectives were taking charge after the substance was identified as Novichok. He said 100 officers had been assigned to the case.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said she was being kept updated on the case, “which understand­ably is being treated with the utmost seriousnes­s.”

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