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Salisbury couple are fresh victims of the Novichok attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal

Telegraph Reporters 4 JULY 2018 • 9:52PM
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/04/salisbury-couple-fresh-victims-novichok-attack-sergei-yulia/

The couple taken critically ill in Salisbury over the weekend were tonight confirmed as being fresh victims of the novichok attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

A major incident was declared in the city on Wednesday with several locations sealed off after Charles Rowley, 45, and his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, 44, became unwell with similar symptoms to the Skripals.

Authorities confirmed the substance they were exposed to was the nerve agent used on the attack against the Skripals in March.

It comes after efforts were made by health officials assured residents there was no wider public health risk after the poisoning four months ago, and follows efforts to try and bring back visitors to the city.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, and Public Health England will come under pressure after insisting originally the risk to other members of the public was low.

Mr Rowley is a registered heroin addict and police and doctors initially thought the incident was drug related. But four days after they fell into a coma, the alarm was raised when they failed to respond to treatment and it emerged they had spent several hours in the vicinity close to where the Skripals were poisoned.

The incident comes less than a fortnight after the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall paid a visit to Salisbury to offer support to locals ?affected by disruption caused by the Skripal poisoning.

Experts at the nearby Porton Down government defence laboratory carried out tests to identify what the substance involved was.

The Government held two Cobra meetings and a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the matter was being treated with the “utmost seriousness”.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the deliberate poisonings of the Skripals, but the latest development comes at a particularly sensitive time as Russia hosts the World Cup finals – and could face England in the semi-finals.

Counter-terrorism police have been called in to investigate.

A friend of the couple, Sam Hobson, 29, described how Ms Sturgess, a mother of three, had fallen ill suddenly on Saturday morning, followed by Mr Rowley several hours later.

Mr Hobson, an unemployed car ?mechanic, said they had both been frothing at the mouth and hallucinating before falling into a coma.

He said the previous day the three of them had visited several locations in Salisbury close to the riverside bench at the Maltings shopping centre where the Skripals collapsed.

MAPS

After declaring a major incident, police sealed off all the areas the couple had been in the hours before they fell ill, including Queen Elizabeth Gardens; Mr Rowley’s flat in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, nine miles from Salisbury; a Boots branch; and the Amesbury Baptist Centre.

Police also sealed off Ms Sturgess’s home in John Baker House, a property used by social services to accommodate people with drug and alcohol problems, which is just a two-minute walk from the Zizzi restaurant where the Skripals ate before collapsing from the effects of Novichok.

Colonel Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter, who had been visiting him from Moscow, spent two months in hospital after being? poisoned.

They were discharged in May and moved to a secure location, where they are continuing to recover.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/04/salisbury-couple-fresh-victims-novichok-attack-sergei-yulia/