Town’s new reality: Second nerve agent poisoning

AMESBURY, ENGLAND» In this normally pleasant town of 10,000 residents a stone’s throw from the mysterious Stonehenge monument, the new reality is sinking in: Novichok, again.

Four months had passed since the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter, and the collective nightmare seemed to be fading. No longer were forensics experts in oversize hazmat suits combing the area for an invisible killer developed by the Soviet Union in Cold War times.

Eager tourists, drawn by an unusually long spell of glorious summer weather, were back at Stonehenge, and England’s World Cup team was surging, buoying spirits. Then a local couple with no obvious connection to Russia or to espionage fell desperately ill and the government said Novichok was to blame.

Some are embracing the “keep calm and carry on” ethos that helped England through two world wars, but others were frightened by the seemingly random poisoning of two innocents who now lie critically ill in a local hospital.

“It’s shocking, and it’s scary,” said Elaine Read, a worker at The Kings Arms pub who used to occasionally share a pint with Dawn Sturgess, one of the victims. “Nobody expected it to happen again. Everyone was saying it was Russia, but now it’s just two ... local people. They’re just like us.”

She said it’s difficult to feel safe after what happened to Sturgess, 44, and 45-year-old Charlie Rowley. Both became violently ill within hours of each other on Saturday. At first, authorities believed they had taken some bad heroin or crack cocaine, but it turned out to be Novichok.

“You don’t know where it is. That’s the trouble,” Read said.