Two Britons poisoned in second nerve agent incident

Two British citizens are critically ill in Salisbury District Hospital in Wiltshire, England, after being exposed to the same nerve agent that sickened a former Russian spy and his daughter in March. Police said they received a call on Saturday morning to a home in Amesbury after 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess collapsed and then returned to the home in the evening after 45-year-old Charlie Rowley collapsed as well. “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 London’s Metropolitan Police.

In March, authorities found Skripal and his daughter Yulia unconscious in a park in Salisbury, 8 miles from the site of Saturday’s incident. They remained in critical condition for weeks at the same hospital before their release to an undisclosed location. Russia repeatedly denied responsibility for the attack against the Skripals. Basu said authorities found nothing in the latest victims’ background to suggest they were targeted, but “the possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of inquiry for us.” England’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies, told reporters on Wednesday that any risk of exposure to the public “remains low.”