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LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2018
MEMBERS OF THE public are being warned not to pick up objects if they “don’t know what they are” after a couple has been left critically ill in the UK after being exposed to the same nerve agent used on a former Russian spy earlier this year.
The couple took ill on Saturday in the small town of Amesbury, close to the city of Salisbury, where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench on 4 March in an incident that sparked a diplomatic crisis with Russia.
“The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us,” said Neil Basu, head of Britain’s counter-terrorism police force.
British security minister Ben Wallace told BBC radio: “The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequences of the previous attack, or something else, but not that they were directly targeted”.
Police announced late yesterday that tests on the couple, named locally as 44-year-old woman Dawn Sturgess and 45-year-old man Charlie Rowley, revealed they had been exposed to Novichok, but could not say whether it was the same batch used on the Skripals.
Novichok is a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
fffdsfa
Police have called for calm but also said that anyone who had visited any of the five sites that the man and the woman went to on Friday and Saturday should wash clothing worn at the time and wipe down personal items.
Speaking to Sky News earlier today, Public Health England Paul Cosford said: “The general risk to the general public is low and it’s perfectly reasonable to carry on with your day to day activities.
We’ve issued some proportional advice which is that if you were in one of the areas of concerns from 10 o’clock on last Friday evening, it’s a sensible thing simply to wash your clothes and, of course, we should all remember not to pick up items that we don’t know what they are.
The sites, which have now been cordoned off, are a park and a homeless hostel in Salisbury, as well as a pharmacy, church and the house in Amesbury.
A cordon could be seen around a bin at the homeless hostel.
A man living at the hostel, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that the woman affected had been living there.
“We are all worried… What if it is something from in there?” he said, pointing to the building.
Wallace repeated the British government’s accusations of Russian responsibility for the attack on the Skripals, which have been denied by Moscow, and said Russia could provide information that would protect local residents in Salisbury.
“We have said they can come and tell us what happened. I’m waiting for the phone call from the Russian state. The offer is there. They are the ones who could fill in all the clues to keep people safe,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the case was “very worrying” but Russia had no information “about what substances were used and how they were used”.
“From the very beginning the Russian side proposed conducting a joint investigation with the British side and this proposal remained without a response,” he said.
‘Hallucinating’
Interior minister Sajid Javid chaired an emergency cabinet meeting on today and a spokesman said Prime Minister Theresa May is being kept “regularly updated”.
Counter-terrorism police, which are in charge of the Skripal probe, are also leading the investigation into this incident.
Basu said there “remains a low risk to the general public,” saying “we’re satisfied that if anyone was exposed to that level of nerve agent by now they would be showing symptoms”.
However, many questions remain over the source of the contamination and why tests were not conducted on the couple until Monday, two days after they were taken ill.
Local man Sam Hobson (29) told AFP he was a friend of the pair and had spent time with them as they fell ill.
“I came around Charlie’s house in the morning and there were loads of ambulances outside, and his girlfriend was getting taken away,” he said.
“She was complaining of a headache in the morning and she went into the bathroom to have a bath and he heard a thump and she was in there having a fit, foam coming out of her mouth.”
She was hospitalised at around 9.15am. Hobson then went with Rowley to a church fair where Rowley complained of feeling unwell.
“He was sweating loads, dribbling, and you couldn’t speak to him,” Hobson said. “There was no response from him, he didn’t even know I was there. It’s like he was in another world, hallucinating.”
Hobson said he called the ambulance at around 2.30pm.
Hobson also said that the couple had visited Salisbury on Friday, speculating that “they must have touched something that was contaminated”.
Basu said there was no evidence the man and the woman had “recently visited any of the sites that were decontaminated” after the poisoning of the Skripals.
Police had initially assumed that the two had consumed contaminated drugs.
But samples from both patients were sent to Porton Down defence laboratory on Monday “due to concern over the symptoms”, Basu said.
Both are still in a critical condition and are at Salisbury District Hospital – the same facility where the Skripals were treated.
Skripal, 67, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, were treated for weeks before being released from hospital.
The police said they suspected the nerve agent may have been smeared on a front door handle in liquid form.
The poisoning sparked a diplomatic crisis that saw Russia and the West expelling dozens of diplomats in tit-for-tat moves.
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It’s a whole load of baloney to discredit Russia (the old enemy) during its successful hosting if the World Cup
@Clever Jake: you got a link to this “Vile brutal police assault of the guy who jumped on the russian police van? , seeing as i can`t find it on the internet….
I can send you the link of an English fan who defaced a statue outside the football ground the other night in return
Him apologising and saying he has always respected Russia is laughable,
want to trade??
@Clever Jake: PS, Circumvent is what you should have said,
Circumnavigate is to sail or travel all the way around the world
@Clever Jake: The Sun…. Seriously?
@Clever Jake: the journal doesn’t have a spellcheck feature.
@Clever Jake: The Sun.FFS! LOL
you are really scraping the barrel with your “Vile” comments, he was beaten on the legs, and good enough for him, he shouldn`t have been pounding up and down on a cop car, in the US he would have been shot,
You are just a russiaphobe, talk about Hyperbole –
ONE incidents in the whole world cup,
The Fact that it is THE only link on the internet from the sun, and not multiple links that would be expected from different sources if it had reall been “Vile”
PS Porton Down is only 3 MILES from this new “Discovery”
Sun Readers tend to have a much lower IQ compared to the general population
@Clever Jake: Also The SUN and the METRO have a vested interest in sensationalising this story, seeing as they were part of the scare mongering about Russia which stopped thousands and thousands of Englis fans travelling, as the media and politicians had them shit scared to travel in case they got beaten up,
English fans who did travel are calling the ones who stayed home “mugs” This world cup is an onprecedented success, and the Rags in british media along with the politicians are being found out for the goons they are.
It must really stick in your craw, that Russia aren`t being seen as the big bad bogeyman any longer…
@Clever Jake: Your Humanity???
LMFAO!!
The cut of my jib………..LMFAO!
Jesus boy, but you are entertaining, if nothing else.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: If you don’t like the Sun here is the link from a Russian site.
https://m.vk.com/video-33041211_456240422?list=e042061d41bc09c280&from=wall-33041211_4214237
@Mick Jordan: that site is a Russian online social media and social networking service, something akin to facebook, NOT actually a news site, nice try though, you got any links from actual newspapers?
@Pearse Mc Mullen: Are you denying the video is real???
@Pearse Mc Mullen: https://themoscowtimes.com/news/brutality-62082
@Mick Jordan: I never denied that the video was real lad, i was simply pointing out that it is being sensationalised, if it was really “Vile” it would have been picked up by news agencies across the world, which is clearly not the case here,
Don`t put words in my mouth either mate, i never denied it was real.
@Mick Jordan:
“The media blackout underlines the push to make the national prestige project a success after Vladimir Putin told police in February that the “ image of the nation depends upon the thoroughness of your work”.
In a copy of a document seen by The Telegraph, a colonel in Russia’s central federal district ordered subordinates to “cease publishing in the mass media information about investigative operations and preventative measures” from June 5 to July 25.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/06/15/russia-orders-media-blackout-crime-news-world-cup/
Pearse (I won’t have a bad word said about Russia) McMullen
@Diaspora’d: Is not that i won`t have a bad word said about Russia, it`s just that i like to give an alternative view to all the western media crap that is spewed out by the likes of yourself, mick Jordan and Clever Jake – such as your link above which is from the telegraph of all rags, I notice it says they “Have seen a document” but then don`t put said Document on the article.
You are a pro American stooge who regularly comments on everything anti russian,
we had a conversation a while back, where you admitted to being an Irish bloke who now lives in the US,
you are brainwashed by the media, just like others i have mentioned, you can see nothing but “Reds under the bed”
Hypocrisy at it`s finest accusing me of Russian bias, when you do exactly the same….
Keep up the good work, Trump and May are very proud of you :-)
@Pearse Mc Mullen: You don’t seem to understand the difference between a question and a statement. I asked you a Question when I asked if you doubted the veracity of the video. I did not make the Statement that you claimed the video wasn’t real.
@Diaspora’d: South Africa / Brazil for example brough in extreme measures also.. Russia tried to ensure no hooliganism ? like di u wnat to see it or what, what’s the point ?
@Irish Bob: The point is Russia bashing, I am sure the UK police did something similar during the Olympics, but he will never point that out as it doesn`t suit his narrative.
He conveniently leaves out of that article that Russia are worried about a terrorist attack like the bloody underground bombing last year in St Petersburg, near where the England team is based, Moscow has deployed missile launchers and anti-drone jammers at stadiums across the country to keep fans safe, Or the fact that Russia has also reportedly deployed additional warships and aircraft to the Sea of Azov for fear of a Ukrainian “provocation” during the World Cup.
In Volgograd, where England will play Tunisia on Monday, police have installed 131 new surveillance cameras for the tournament and closed streets near the stadium. The city has sought to tighten security since suicide bombings killed 34 people here before the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
Of course they want the tournament to go well, and of course they want nothing to happen to fans, the Terrorist threats against Russia are huge,
Not least because they are the fly in the ointment on the US`s ambition of regime change in Syria
@Marc O’Dóinn:
My boy Novichock
You make my heart go giddy up
You set my world on fire
You are my one desire
My boy Novichock
@Pearse Mc Mullen: Have just read all of the above comments and I know that last time there was poisoning we were all joking about Russian bots, but I really need to know if you are actually one.
@Stephen O’Donoghue: Usual tactics is to call people bots, I’d rather be called a bot that be one of the sheeple that think Russia is bad and the US/UK is good .. Its not that simple..
@Stephen O’Donoghue: If there was any real evidence that the Russians were behind the posioning, it would be reported in everything.
Instead we have inuendo and possibleitites etc … like its not that the Brittish and MI5 have never been found out to lie to suit their aims or that they swallowed American bull like with WMD’s in Iraq or that Irag/Sadam suported Al Queada whihc was all bull to justify a war to Stop Iraq from changing to the Euro for selling Oil and to control Iraq’s Oil.
As soon as you mentioned Iraq and oil and the Euro, you lost me. I want to know if you also think the world is flat. None of us know the truth about anything, we only know what we are let know, and then we believe what is told us, not necessarily the truth.
@Stephen O’Donoghue: No mate, i am definitely not a bot, I am just someone who is very interested in Geo politics, and the way western Media treats all it`s consumers with contempt by continuously barraging us with lies to force their agenda of regime change and the need to spend vast vast amounts of money on weapons and wars.
I read a lot of different news from around the world, and folow a lot of independent reporters, all i try to do is make people see an alternative view than the one always being portrayed to the suckers who lap it all up as gospel
What’s all the fuss about this Novichok, it doesn’t even work .
@Clever Jake: Maybe this couple had something to do with the first poisoning? It will be interesting to see what they do for a living and if they’re involved with the British Government somehow.
@Travis: The woman had been previously staying in the homeless hostel, I highly doubt she’s involved with the British government.
@Thunder Snowman: but somehow she ended up living with a supposed heroine addict in a 500 thoysand euro house. Go figure.
Terrifying. The couple had recently moved in so it might be a case that the house was the one used to prepare to novichok in the first instance, but you wouldn’t know with the Russians. Here’s hoping May gives an even stronger response.
@Darren Bates:
The thing is, there is no proof it was the Russians.
@Darren Bates: Bring the English football team home.
@Native: There’s no proof that there wasn’t proof, they don’t exactly publicly share details of such a sensitive investigation. Could you imagine the chaos if they had done that during the Cold War?
You would have been correct if you said there wasn’t any publicly released proof.
Anyway, considering it was Novichok, the Russians certainly can be blamed, at least for letting it get into the hands of others (if it really wasn’t them). We seem to absolve people from responsibility more and more often.
@Colm A. Corcoran: There’s no point in debating with an anonymous coward Colm. This is “Native”‘s hobby.
@Colm A. Corcoran: Really?? The Russians certainly
can be blamed for letting it into the hands of others??
You DO realise that Novichok has been reproduced by other states?
Even the Czech president has admitted his forces made it in the past
orton Down seems to be the common denominator in bothe these case as it is just up the road, and is the British HQ for military grade chemical and nerve agents.
It`s just lazy to automatically blame the Russians on everything, even the last case has not been proved as to it being them,
but of course, all you “experts” will keep banging the same, tired old drum
@Danny Rafferty: There is no point is debating with someone like you also it seems, as you have your mind made up as to who the guilty parties are already – even though you haven`t got a shred of evidence.
calling someone an “anonymous coward” just because you can`t find out his real name is hilarious, especially when there is zero proof that your name is actually Danny rafferty.
It`s the internet you tool – EVERYONE can be anonymous on a media site
@Colm A. Corcoran: If they had any evidence it was Russia they would have said it. Plenty of politicians gave opinions from the get go.
But sure good old Borris told the world it was the Russians so we should pay heed to the man who can’t comb his hair. And sure the English media told us that the world cup would descend in to anarchy.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: Actually funny enough my exact point was about this attitude of being an ‘expert’, you couldn’t have any other attitude in order to claim it wasn’t Russia contrary to British Government opinion because it would require insider information to do so.
That said, I looked up Novachok, I see your point, but I would presume that the Czech Republic, being a former Soviet State, would have more intimate knowledge of how to reproduce it than any other non-former Soviet State.
@John Mitten: No they wouldn’t. When in the whole of history have they ever done that? Government investigations aren’t conducted by popular opinion.
@Danny Rafferty:
Lol, You some sort of big man around town, keyboard warrior throws petty insult, makes you feel like a big boy haha? A wet tea bag has more backbone than you, fool :)
@Colm A. Corcoran: During the break up of the Soviet Union there were a handful of East European former Soviet States that could produce this particular Novichok, add that to terrorist groups, gangsters and former Soviet agents who could see an opportunity. Definitive proof matters, I m not going to just take Mays word for it.
@Colm A. Corcoran: You would want to do a bit of reading on the US who are the ones that went is and cleaned the now closed chemical weapons lab in Uzbekistan, where Novichok used to be made during the soviet era – The British ambassador to Uzbekistan at the time, met the American team and watched them take all the equipment and notes with them, he even attended a party for their leaving –
Do a bit more googling, and don`t be lazily blaming it on russia –
PS. you DO know that it was also made in the Ukriane? don`t you?
do a bit of reading bud
@Darren Bates: if your theory has logic, anyone in the house before them would also be contaminated.?
@Pearse Mc Mullen: Fair enough, you know what I did rush on that statement regarding Novichok. I do believe there is still at least a degree of responsibility that Russia still has due to being the principal state in the Soviet Union that instigated its creation, responsibility enough to provide aid in any investigations relating to it which the British Government did reject.
I don’t mind doing a little bit more research Pearse, what sources can you reference regarding Novichok, the US and the British ambassador?
@Colm A. Corcoran:
You can start here mate for evidence that the US indeed cleaned up the chemical weapons facility
Earlier this year, the Pentagon informed Congress that it intends to spend up to $6 million under its Cooperative Threat Reduction program to demilitarize the so-called Chemical Research Institute, in Nukus, Uzbekistan. Soviet defectors and American officials say the Nukus plant was the major research and testing site for a new class of secret, highly lethal chemical weapons called ”Novichok,” which in Russian means ”new guy.”
(May 25th 1999)
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/25/world/us-and-uzbeks-agree-on-chemical-arms-plant-cleanup.html
This a pretty good one too
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/the-novichok-story-is-indeed-another-iraqi-wmd-scam/
Google Craig Murray ( he was the British ambassador at the time ), go to his site, plenty of links to stories that will make you really think
I will post more links if and when you need them mate
The brits and our pal Leo now look like they clearly jumped the gun in their hasty ecpulsions of Russian diplomats. I wonder if they will be as quick to apologize to the Russian people for their screw up?
@Cal Mooney: not a chance, they will brush it under the carpet like every other phuckup they do, and spin their way out of it
@Cal Mooney: the bbc describe how Novichok works within seconds, yet the first victim collapsed early morning and the police were called. The second victim collapsed in the afternoon. Genuinely, you dont have to be Sherlock Homes to figure out some nutcase is playing God here. Not a foreign intelligence agency, this is an english home grown issue. We should expel the english diplomats in response and in solidarity with our closest neighbours.
@Cal Mooney: Have you been wondering why the British government has bought the house that belonged to the Skirpals and any other property they have along with their possessions and are destroying them?
Anyone else wonder why they are destroying potential evidence?
Also buying the coppers house – total for both is going to be over £1 million – Just what exactly are they trying to hide?
@Pearse Mc Mullen: could it be that someone within has an agenda to cause maximum destabilization to whatever relationships exist between Britain and Russia? Who gains from this? Why would Russia be blamed? Why not some deranged insider in Britain? I think we will never know.
@Cal Mooney: Here is the actual BBC report.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43377698
You will notice it states quite clearly that the “Powder” form of Novichok takes longer than liquids to enter the bloodstream. And it was Novichok 234A that is believed to have been used in the Skripal case and the far more lethal Novichok 230 which is believed to be 8 times more deadly than VX.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: could they not just be destroying contaminated areas? Liability would be on the state if they didn’t do so and anyone else got contaminated
@Dave O Keeffe: didn`t they tell everyone that simply wiping things with wet wipes and water was good enough??
@Dave O Keeffe: Are they going to buy the Restaurant and bar, along with every other place they visited and destroy them as well???
@Clever Jake: I have never said it because i DON`T BELIEVE it has anything to do with the Russians, and NEVER has!
There has been absolutely NO concrete proof of Russian involvement,
Jesus, it`s like talking to a 2 year old, trying to get anything through your head
@Clever Jake: Russia has gone to considerable efforts to give a good impression of itself in the last few years from upgrading infrastructure to building and improving football stadiums. It dosn’t make sense that they would undo all this by poisoning a former spy on British soil, knowing the outcome.
It is far more likely that this was done by a party who wants to discredit Russia.
@Kieran Woods: Litvinenko ring any bells? MH17? How about the attempted assination of the Macedonian President where a Russian GRU Intelligence Officer was captured? Maybe the attempts to interfere in multiple Western Elections and Referenda? Leopards don’t change their spots. Russia is like the Scorpion in the tale of the Scorpion and the Frog. It’s in their nature.
@Clever Jake: You have no more an open view on this than the man on the moon lad………….
What are internet flare caps?? – is that kind of like a 4th of July rocket or what?
Every single link you put up is from the British media , who of course, aren`t biased in the slightest, you really should broaden your reading habits…….otherwise you end up with a lopsided view of the world, which, by the looks of it, you already have.
I`m ignoring you after this comment as you just regurgitate absolute crap.
@Clever Jake: if you believe what the bbc ate saying then you believe their latest article that quotes an expert on Novichok saying thete is no way this came from the same source that poisoned the Skripals. He says that once exposed to the environment its usefulness and toxicity expires in less than 4 months. That same article quoting a witness saying the latest victim went to a chemist to get a prescription filled and that the victim started getting sick within 2 hours of taking his prescription. To be fair to the BBC, even they seem to be calling BS on this being a secondary accidental poisoning from the Skripal event.
Why is Sergei Skripal always referred to in the Irish media as a ‘former Russian spy’ instead of what he is, a British spy?
I saw it was on the Muggleroad. “Voldemort is back”.
Maybe the British think the only way to save their post Brexit faltering state is to start a war and utilise their one remaining world class asset…… their military
Just sayin’
We should fully support the UK now, enough is enough, Novochick is an indiscriminate way to target anyone, it easily damaging to innocents who happen upon an area where it has been used. Time to take the gloves off, we should now expel TWO embassy staff this time AND rescind the Russian Embassy’s plans for extension in Dublin.
@ross mcgee: strange all the same that the problem emerged close to the British Centre that specializes in the study of such poisonous agents. Might it be an insider job?
@ross mcgee: what an idiotic statement. This 2nd event would seem to show no Russian involvement. More like an escape from UK lab
@ross mcgee: you do realise that THIS area is 3 miles from Porton Down, and Salisbury is eight miles from Porton Down on the other side,
Talk about hyperbole, that is one seriously stupid comment you just made their lad, stay out of the sun
@ross mcgee: Time to apologise to Russia for believing this fairy tale and re admit the diplomat.
@ross mcgee: That will show them
fffdsfa
Fentanyl.
Perhaps Putin is sending a message before a possible World Cup confrontation between his boys and England?
@Kárl: haa haa .. you would think he would have targetted the english fans in russia instead of ensuring they are having a fantastic world cup.
It’s been a few months since the last poisoning, but because most of us are super intelligent we comment on an online newspaper site. During this quiet spell of poisonings we have all got our doctret in poisons and international government workings and are now able to talk even more shite about stuff we know nothing about.
@Stephen O’Donoghue: well done you on educating yourself. I am sure your contributions in response will be entirely factual and without bias.
Putin up to no good again!
First reports I read said they were junkies who’d scores a ‘bad batch’?
What happened to that story?
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