Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations Neil Basu speaking on Wednesday night

A man and woman found unconscious in Wiltshire were exposed to Novichok - the same nerve agent that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, police say.

The couple, believed to be Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday and remain in a critical condition.

Police say no-one else has presented with the same symptoms.

There was "nothing in their background" to suggest the pair were targeted, the Met Police said.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has chaired a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee to discuss the developments.

Prime Minister Theresa May said her thoughts were with the victims and the government would provide every support to the community.

"The message from Salisbury is clear - it is very much open for business," she added.

What happened?

Image copyright Facebook Image caption The couple, believed to be Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, spent Friday in Salisbury

On Saturday, paramedics were called twice to a house in Muggleton Road in Amesbury - first at 11:00 BST after Ms Sturgess collapsed, then later the same day, after Mr Rowley also fell ill.

Wiltshire Police said it was initially thought the two patients had been using heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs.

In the early hours of Wednesday, police declared a "major incident" after revealing the couple had been exposed to an "unknown substance".

By late that evening, Scotland Yard said Novichok was to blame following analysis at the defence research facility at Porton Down, Wiltshire.

What do we know about the couple's movements?

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A friend of Charlie Rowley describes the symptoms he witnessed

Partners Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess spent Friday afternoon and evening visiting shops in Salisbury, the city where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned.

The following day Ms Sturgess, who is understood to be a mother of three, was taken away on a stretcher by an ambulance crew.

Friend Sam Hobson said she had appeared to have a fit and was "foaming at the mouth".

Shortly after, Mr Rowley started "rocking against the wall", said Mr Hobson.

"His eyes were wide open, glazed and pinpricked, and he was sweating, dribbling and making weird noises."

Mr Hobson said the police and firefighters were in "hazard suits" and "cordoned it all off".

Ms Sturgess' father Stephen, 65, told The Times the family found out she may have been poisoned by a nerve agent from TV news.

"We heard from the hospital on Sunday and we gave them Dawn's GP details but we didn't hear anything from the police.

"We know as much as the next person in the street. We actually called the police station for information."

What is Novichok?

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie says the nerve agent used on the Skripals may have been disposed of haphazardly

Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, takes effect within minutes, blocking messages from the nerves to the muscles.

This affects breathing, can cause paralysis and lead to the collapse of bodily functions. There are antidotes to help reverse the chemical effects.

It acts quickest when ingested or inhaled and more slowly when contact is made through skin exposure.

Novichok is designed to be persistent - it neither evaporates nor decomposes quickly.

It was used in the UK in March in an attack on former Russian double agent Mr Skripal and Yulia, who were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury - about 10 miles from Amesbury.

The two were critically ill in hospital for weeks but both were discharged in less than three months.

The highest concentration of Novichok was found on the Skripals' front door.

The UK government blamed Russia for the assassination attempt but Russia has denied any involvement and accused the UK of inventing a "fake story".

How did it happen?

The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said the most likely hypothesis was that the Novichok was left over from the attack on the Skripals.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said they could not confirm whether the nerve agent came from the same batch but the possibility was "clearly a line of inquiry".

His officers are examining the couple's movements to determine where they were poisoned.

So far no contaminated items have been found and the police say they have no idea what the nerve agent was contained in.

Security minister Ben Wallace said: "The working assumption would be these are victims of the consequences of the previous attack or something else but not that they were directly targeted. That could change."

He called on Russia to fill in the gaps in the Skripal attack and "put this wrong right".

"I'm waiting for the phone call from the Russian state - the offer is there," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said this incident looked like "a very, very unfortunate - and hopefully not tragic - after-effect of that earlier incident".

Chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie said it was possible that the couple came across the Novichok which poisoned the Skripals after it had been disposed of "in a haphazard way".

However, Vil Mirzayanov, the Russian scientist who first exposed the Novichok programme, cast doubt on the theory, saying Novichok would have decomposed in the four months since the Skripal attack.

He told the BBC this must have been a separate incident because Novichok was unstable, especially in damp conditions.

Are others at risk?

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Security minister Ben Wallace says he cannot guarantee people are 100% safe from further contamination.

The risk to the general public remains low, says England's chief medical officer Sally Davies.

However, she advises people who had been in the cordoned-off areas to wash their clothes and wipe down personal items.

Residents at John Baker House, the supported housing where Ms Sturgess is believed to have been staying, have been evacuated and told they will have to be rehoused.

The police warned members of the public against picking anything up if they didn't know what it was.

Asked whether the people of Salisbury and Amesbury were at risk, security minister Ben Wallace said the "best intelligence officers in the world" were working on the investigation but until the full picture of the Skripal assassination attempt was known, he couldn't offer complete reassurance.

Sites in Amesbury and Salisbury believed to have been visited by the couple before they fell ill have been cordoned off as a precaution, including a church, park and chemist.

This latest incident is likely to raise fears about the efficacy of a multimillion pound clean-up to decontaminate nine locations across Salisbury after the Skripal poisoning.

What's been the reaction in Russia?

It's "very alarming news", said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin.

"It causes great concern as there have already been numerous such incidents in Great Britain."

He also said he was "unaware of any requests" from the UK in relation to the Amesbury incident.

Russian media: 'Groundhog Day'

By BBC Monitoring

The state media in Russia are deflecting any suggestions of a Russian link to the new poisoning.

Even before it emerged that the Novichok agent was involved, Wednesday night's primetime TV bulletins sarcastically said it was only a matter of time before Moscow gets the blame.

State-run Rossiya 1 suggested it might have been staged by the British government out of spite over the "fabulous" World Cup hosted by Russia.

NTV - owned by state gas giant Gazprom - called it "another dodgy story" from the Salisbury area, this time aimed at deterring fans from coming to Russia.

Again, it added, the British had offered no detailed evidence: "Boris Johnson and British journalists will think up the rest."

Channel One accused the UK of "dragging old skeletons out of the closet" to discredit Moscow ahead of President Vladimir Putin's upcoming summit with Donald Trump.

"Groundhog Day. New Skripals in Salisbury. Really?" said its presenter.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Counter-terrorism officers are now involved in the investigation of an incident near the southwestern English city of Salisbury which has left two people in critical condition, London’s police force said on Wednesday.

“Given the recent events in Salisbury, officers from the counter terrorism network are working jointly with colleagues from Wiltshire Police regarding the incident in Amesbury,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

“As Wiltshire Police have stated, they are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

Police in Wiltshire, where Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in March, took the rare step of declaring a major incident after a man and a woman were found unconscious on Saturday in Amesbury.</s>LONDON — Russia denied any involvement Thursday in the poisoning of a couple in Britain with a Soviet-developed nerve agent, four months after a Russian father and daughter were found poisoned with the same toxin in a nearby city.

Emergency services were called to the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, southern England, on Saturday after the couple, Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, were found unconscious in a property. They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they remain in critical condition.

Police said the pair were exposed to nerve agent Novichok. The couple were found by emergency services about 10 miles from Salisbury, where Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the same nerve agent on March 4. Britain blames Russia for the Skripals’ poisoning. Russia denies any involvement.

More: Nerve agent leaves couple in critical condition near site of UK spy attack

Related: Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital after poisoning

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia had nothing to do with either incident.

“Russia has categorically denied and continues to categorically deny the possibility of any kind of involvement to what was happening there,” Peskov told reporters.

He said “the British side has not presented any evidence of Russia’s involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations.”

Authorities believe Rowley and Sturgess, British nationals with no known links to Russia, were not deliberately targeted.

“The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequence of the previous attack, or something else, but not that they were directly targeted,” Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC.

“I think what we said at the time was that this was a brazen and reckless attack in the heart of a very peaceful part of the United Kingdom, and that is part of the anger I feel about the Russian state … that they chose to use clearly a very, very toxic, highly dangerous weapon.”

British media said the couple could have somehow come into contact with Novichok residue from the attack on the Skripals, who have been taken to an undisclosed location after they were discharged from Salisbury District Hospital in April and May.

Sergei Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 for passing state secrets to Britain. He was released as part of a spy swap in 2010 and moved to Salisbury.

More: Who is Sergei Skripal? Russian spy found unconscious in English park sparks intrigue

Public health officials said the risk to the public is low, but advised people who had visited five locations in Amesbury and Salisbury between Friday night and Saturday evening including a park, a drugstore and a church to wash the clothing they were wearing and wipe personal items such as phones with cleansing or baby wipes.

Sam Hobson, a friend of Sturgess, said she was taken away on a stretcher after falling ill Saturday, the BBC reported. Hobson said she appeared to have a fit and was "foaming at the mouth" and that Rowley started "rocking against the wall” soon afterward, according to the BBC.

"His eyes were wide open, glazed and pinpricked, and he was sweating, dribbling and making weird noises,” Hobson added.

Russia is currently hosting the 2018 World Cup. If Russia and England win their next matches, the two teams could face each other in next week’s semi-finals.

Russia’s embassy in the Netherlands tweeted Thursday: "How dumb they think (Russia) is to use “again” so-called “Novichok” in the middle of the FIFA World Cup...The show must go on?"</s>British investigators have descended upon a small English town to find out how two apparently random individuals were exposed to the same Soviet-era nerve agent that nearly killed a former Russian double agent and his daughter earlier this year.

Authorities confirmed Wednesday night that a couple, identified in British media as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, were being treated for exposure to Novichok, a highly toxic nerve agent first developed in secret by the Soviet Union.

The pair remain in critical condition after being rushed on Saturday to Salisbury District Hospital, the same hospital that treated former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia who were poisoned in March.

Police say they don’t believe that Rowley and Sturgess were deliberately targeted — unlike the Skripals, who British authorities suspect were the victims of a Russian plot.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid will chair an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the incident. Prime Minister Theresa May has been updated on the situation, her office told CNN.

UK Security Minister Ben Wallace said Thursday in a BBC interview that the British government would find out who was responsible for the latest nerve agent poisonings and what exactly happened in Wiltshire “no matter how long it takes.”

Rowley and Sturgess live in Amesbury, a town of fewer than 10,000 people about 20 minutes’ drive from Salisbury where the Skripals were poisoned.

Authorities did not name the two but described them as British nationals local to the area.

Paramedics were called to an address on Muggleton Road, Amesbury, at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, after a woman, later identified as Sturgess, collapsed, according to Neil Basu, the assistant commissioner for counter terrorism at the London Metropolitan Police.

They were called back later the same day when the man, now known to be Rowley, had also fallen ill.

The couple made a round trip to Salisbury from nearby Amesbury on Friday, according to family and friends who spoke to British media. Authorities said while they were in Salisbury they didn’t visit any of the sites that were decontaminated in connection to the Skripal case.

Doctors initially thought they’d been exposed to a batch of contaminated cocaine or heroin. However, concerns over their symptoms prompted medical officials to look at Novichok as a serious possibility.

Basu said authorities received test results Wednesday evening that confirmed the couple had been exposed to Novichok.

Residents told CNN they were very concerned by the news, coming only weeks after the poisoning of the Skripals and subsequent cleanup by the authorities.

“It is quite scary and very worrying as well. To know it is still about,” said Paula Bull, a mother of six. “This is no place for my kids to grow up, it’s really worrying. I’m going to be more cautious.”

Another Salisbury resident, who gave her name only as Susan, said she was “really angry” with the authorities for not living up to their promise to clean up the area after the Skripal case.

“The only place I ever saw getting cleared was the bench where Sergei Skripal was found,” she said. “We don’t need this sort of thing, it’s very quiet lovely beautiful area, and to have chemicals like that around — you just can’t have it. There are too many elderly and too many children.”

What’s the connection to the Skripal case?

Beyond the fact that all four individuals were exposed to the same nerve agent, it’s not clear if there’s any connection between the cases.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury in March. Authorities believed they were exposed to Novichok at Sergei Skripal’s home. Both were admitted in critical condition and spent weeks in the hospital before they were discharged.

The March incident in Salisbury sparked a diplomatic dispute between the UK and Russia after British investigators and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) blamed Moscow for the attack.

Russia has denied the allegations, but that did not stop more than 20 other countries from expelling Russian diplomats in a show of support for the UK.

Rowley and Sturgess, however, do not appear to have a relationship with Moscow.

Authorities said there was no evidence that the two were specifically targeted. They’ve been described as normal, local residents with no ties to Russia.

Basu said police were not in a position to say whether Rowley and Sturgess were exposed to the same batch of Novichok as the Skripals were. He added that authorities were looking into whether the two investigations were linked.

Wallace, the Security Minister, told BBC Radio 4 that Russia could help by giving Britain all of the information it has on the nerve agent and the attack on the Skripals.

“The Russian state could put this wrong right. They could tell us what happened, what they did,” Wallace said, adding that one day “the world will know that Russia had a chance to right that wrong and protect the people of Salisbury and they choose not to take it.”

Speaking to Britain’s Sky News, he reiterated the belief that the Amesbury pair “weren’t linked” to the poisoning of the Skripals but admitted authorities “don’t know the full picture of what happened.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the United Kingdom had provided no proof of Russian involvement in the attack on the Skripals. “You know that from the very beginning of the Salisbury case, Russia categorically denied and continues to deny the possibility of any involvement,” he said.

Asked by CNN to comment on Wallace’s remarks, Peskov said: “The UK security minister knows that Russia proposed to have a joint investigation. This proposal is on the agenda and was made long ago. Unfortunately, the British side isn’t interested in it.”

Hours earlier, the Russian embassy in the Netherlands said Britain was “dumb” if it believed Russia was behind the latest poisoning.

“How dumb they think Russia is to use ‘again’ so-called ‘Novichok’ in the middle of the FIFA World Cup and after the special session of the CSP (convened by the way by Britain) that gave the #OPCW attribution functions. The show must go on?” the embassy tweeted. The CSP refers to the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, held by the OPCW.

Britain has not accused Russia of deliberately targeting the latest victims.

What are authorities doing?

The priority for investigators, according to Basu, is to establish how Rowley and Sturgess came into contact with Novichok.

Police have cordoned off a number of sites the two visited before they fell ill as a precautionary measure.

Wiltshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills listed five locations that the couple was believed to have visited and were blocked to the public: Amesbury Baptist Church; a Boots pharmacy in Amesbury; Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury; the John Baker House in Salisbury, a supported living facility; and the property on Muggleton Road.

Authorities did not say when the victims visited each location, but church secretary Ray Collins told CNN he believed the couple attended a family fun day at the church on Saturday, though he did not know who the pair were.

The fun day began at 2 p.m., according to the church’s Facebook event, so it’s possible that only Rowley went.

Nerve agents kill by affecting the nervous system in various ways.

Novichok, which works by causing a slowing of the heart and restriction of the airways, is one of the world’s rarest nerve agents. Very few people outside of Russia have experience with it.

It was first developed in secret by the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s, as a means of countering US chemical weapons defenses but was revealed to the world by former Soviet scientist and whistle-blower Vil Mirzayanov.

Mirzayanov told CNN that Novichok is up to 10 times as potent as VX, the weapon used to kill Kim Jong Un’s half brother, Kim Jong Nam, in 2017.

“A lethal dose … and the person will die immediately. If [the dosage] is less, [the person] will go through very tortuous scenes. They will start convulsions, and stop breathing and then lose vision, and there are other problems — vomiting, everything. It’s a terrible scene,” Mirzayanov told CNN.</s>The Latest: Police say Britons were exposed to nerve agent

AMESBURY, England (AP) — The Latest on the major incident near Salisbury, England, in which two people have been left in a critical condition (all times local):

British police say two Britons who fell critically ill in the town of Amesbury were exposed to nerve agent Novichok, the same material used to poison a former Russian spy in a nearby area last spring.

Medical officials said Wednesday people who had been in the area where the couple had been should take precautions and wash their clothes.

Police said it is unclear if this incident is linked to the earlier poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, or if the batch was the same as the one that poisoned them on March 4.

Counter-terrorism police detective Neil Basu said it is unclear if the couple were targeted or if the poisoning was accidental.

British police say the two people in critical condition after being exposed to an unknown substance near where a former Russian spy was poisoned are British nationals.

Police said the couple was local to Amesbury, eight miles (13 kilometers) from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with a nerve agent on March 4. Police did not name the couple, but friends have named them as Charlie Rowley 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44.

Authorities declared a "major incident" Wednesday after a man and a woman were found unconscious Saturday at a residential building in Amesbury.

Police stressed during a news conference that public health officials do not believe there is a significant health risk to the wider public.

British police say counterterrorism officers are working with local detectives after two people were sickened by an unknown substance in southwest England.

The Metropolitan Police says "officers from the counter terrorism network are working jointly with colleagues from Wiltshire Police" on the incident in Amesbury.

Police say a man and a woman in their 40s were hospitalized after being found unconscious at a residential building in Amesbury. The town is eight miles (13 kilometers) from Salisbury, where ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent on March 4.

Police say they are keeping an open mind and do not yet know whether a crime has been committed.

British police declared a "major incident" Wednesday after two people were left in critical condition from exposure to an unknown substance a few miles from where a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent.

The Wiltshire Police force said a man and a woman in their 40s were hospitalized after being found unconscious at a residential building in Amesbury, eight miles (13 kilometers) from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4.

Police cordoned off the building and other places the two people visited before falling ill, but health officials said there was not believed to be a wider risk.

The man and woman were hospitalized Saturday at Salisbury District Hospital, where authorities initially believed they might have taken a contaminated batch of heroin or crack cocaine.

"However, further testing is now ongoing to establish the substance which led to these patients becoming ill and we are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding this incident," police said. "At this stage, it is not yet clear if a crime has been committed."</s>The Latest: UK: Nerve agent same variety in both poisonings

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on the second case of nerve agent poisoning in England (all times local):

Britain's interior minister says the nerve agent that poisoned an English couple is the same variety as that used against former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, but it's not clear whether the two samples came from the same batch.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid says scientists at Britain's defense research lab are certain "this is the exact same nerve agent from the Novichok family" as the one that poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March.

He said "we cannot attribute this to the same batch at this point" but scientists are investigating.

Detectives are investigating whether the latest victims were exposed to Novichok left over from the Skripal poisoning, possibly in a Salisbury park.

Javid said "it's completely unacceptable" for British parks "to be dumping grounds for poison."

A Russian lawmaker has described a second case of poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok in southern England as part of British efforts to tarnish the Russia-hosted World Cup and fuel tensions ahead of a planned U.S.-Russian summit.

Sergei Zheleznyak, a member of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, said the poisoning of a couple in Amesbury on Saturday is "a continuation of an anti-Russian PR hysteria that British authorities are trying to create."

Zheleznyak noted that "this is happening amid a quite strong positive emotional wave from British fans who came to Russia to support their team during the World Cup." He added that a positive perception of Russia ran contrary to the official narrative and blamed British authorities for presenting what could have been a drug overdose as another Novichok poisoning.

Residents in the small town in southwestern England where a second case of poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok has been reported say they're worried about the potential for more contamination.

Michelle Jordan, a local resident in Amesbury, says she's had to tell her two children not to touch anything when they go to the park and to wash their hands. She says that she hopes authorities "can just find, find some answers and clear things up for us so we can get back to normal."

Authorities had tried to eliminate any traces of the chemical weapon after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in March in the nearby city of Salisbury. Authorities said Thursday they believe two new victims, who were hospitalized in critical condition Saturday, were not directly targeted but sickened as a consequence of the previous attack.

The Kremlin's spokesman says Russia is concerned with a second case of nerve agent poisoning in England, emphasizing that Russia has nothing to do with either case.

British police said Wednesday that a couple in their 40s were in critical condition after being poisoned by the same Soviet-designed agent that nearly killed former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. Britain blamed Russia for the March poisoning — an accusation Moscow vehemently denied.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that "Russia has categorically denied and continues to categorically deny the possibility of any kind of involvement to what was happening there."

Peskov noted Britain has rejected Russia's offer for a joint probe, adding that "the British side has not presented any evidence of Russia's involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations."

Russian lawmakers have speculated that a second case of poisoning by the nerve agent Novichok in England could be traced back to a British source.

British police said Wednesday that a couple got critically ill, poisoned by the same Soviet-designed agent that nearly killed former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. Britain blamed Russia for the Skripals' poisoning — an accusation Moscow fiercely denied.

Nikolai Kovalyov, a lawmaker and the ex-chief of Russia's FSB domestic security agency, told the Interfax news agency that the new poisoning may have been caused by "a psychologically unstable British researcher" who could have stolen the lethal toxin from a chemical lab. He didn't offer any evidence to back his allegations.

Another lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, also pointed finger in Britain's direction, tweeting: "Something is rotten in the United Kingdom."

British officials investigating a second case of poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok in southwestern England say they suspect the victims were not directly targeted but sickened as a consequence of the previous attack.

Police announced late Wednesday that specialists have determined that a couple in their 40s were poisoned by the same lethal toxin — developed by the Soviet Union — that almost killed Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. The new victims are both critically ill in the same hospital that treated the Skripals.

"The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequence of the previous attack, or something else, but not that they were directly targeted," security minister Ben Wallace told the BBC.

British officials are seeking clues in the rush to understand how two Britons were exposed to the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

The country's chief counterterrorism police officer says specialists have determined that the couple in their 40s were poisoned by the same lethal toxin — developed by the Soviet Union — that almost killed a former Russian spy and his daughter in March.

It is not clear if the new victims were intentionally targeted.

The man and woman are critically ill in England's Salisbury District Hospital, where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were previously treated.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid is chairing a meeting of the British government's COBRA emergency committee on Thursday morning.</s>LONDON — Two people found unconscious in southern England on Saturday were exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack an ex-Russian spy in March, London Metropolitan Police said Wednesday.

The pair remain in critical condition in Salisbury District Hospital, the same hospital where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were treated after they were exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent. The UK government suspects the Skripals were victims of a Russian attack.

The UK’s National Counter Terrorism Policing Network is leading the investigation. Officers are investigating the possibility of a connection between the two attacks, said Neil Basu, Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terrorism at London Metropolitan Police. But no evidence so far suggests the couple was specifically targeted, he said.

“I don’t have any intelligence or evidence that they were targeted in any way. There is nothing in their background to suggest that at all,” Basu said.

“We are not in a position to say whether the nerve agent was from the same batch that the Skripals were exposed to. The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of inquiry for us.”

What we know about the victims

Paramedics were called to an address on Muggleton Road in Amesbury the morning of June 30 after a woman collapsed at the property, Wiltshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills told reporters earlier Wednesday. They were called back later the same day after reports that a man became ill in the same location, he said.

British news agencies identified the two people as Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44. Sam Hobson, a friend of the pair, confirmed their names in an interview with Agence France-Presse. The two victims are British nationals local to the area, according to police in Wiltshire, the county in which Amesbury is located.

Wiltshire Police said they were initially believed to have fallen ill after using crack cocaine or heroin from a contaminated batch. On Monday, due to concerns over their symptoms, samples from both patients were sent to a laboratory for analysis.

“Following the detailed analysis of these samples, 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,” Basu said.

“I do want to reassure the public, however, that there is no evidence that either the man or woman recently visited any of the sites that were decontaminated following the attempted murders of Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” he said.

Authorities have cordoned off several sites in Amesbury and Salisbury that the couple is believed to have visited before they fell ill, Basu said. He warned of an increased police presence in the area, which will include officers wearing protective equipment, similar to the activity earlier this year in the Skripal investigation.

Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Kier Pritchard called the increased police presence a “proportionate response to an investigation of this nature and scale.”

“I fully appreciate the effect the cordons will have on local people and businesses,” he said in a statement. “Please let me reassure you that my officers and staff, partner agencies and our colleagues at the Counter Terrorism Policing network will do all we can to progress this investigation and help return the communities of Amesbury and Salisbury back to normality.”

Affected sites include Amesbury Baptist Church, which had police standing guard at the entrance on Tuesday. Church secretary Ray Collins told CNN he believed the victims attended a family fun day at the church on Saturday, though he did not know who the pair were. A Boots pharmacy in Amesbury was cordoned off, along with the Queen Elizabeth Gardens, the John Baker House in Salisbury, a supported living facility, and the Muggleton Road property in Amesbury, according to Wilshire Police.

As a “highly precautionary measure,” Public Health England South West advised anyone who had visited those sites from 10 p.m. on June 29th to 6:30 p.m. on June 30 to do the following:

– Wash the clothing they were wearing in an ordinary washing machine just as they would any other items.

– Wipe personal items such as phones, handbags and other electronic items with cleansing or baby wipes and dispose of the wipes in an ordinary domestic waste disposal.

– Hand wash with warm water and detergent any items that cannot go in the washing machine or be cleaned with wipes, such as jewelery and accessories, and rinse with clean cold water.

Salisbury District Hospital is open as usual and is advising people still to attend routine appointments unless they are contacted to state otherwise.

“Our current advice, based on the small number of casualties affected, is that there is no significant health risk to the wider public. We will keep this assessment under constant review as further information becomes known,” said Mike Wade, Deputy Director of Health Protection for PHE South West.

Authorities believe that Sergei and Yulia Skripal first came into contact with Novichok at Sergei’s home. They were later found slumped over on a bench at an outdoor shopping complex in Salisbury.

The incident in Salisbury sparked a diplomatic dispute between the UK and Russia after British investigators blamed Moscow for the attack.

Russia has denied the allegations, but more than 20 other countries kicked Russian diplomats out of their countries in a show of support for the UK.

The two have since been discharged from the hospital.</s>A couple poisoned in Amesbury were exposed to Novichok - the same substance that almost killed a Russian spy and his daughter.

Charlie Rowley, 45, and 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess were named by friends as the pair who fell critically ill after being exposed to the never agent.

In a press conference this evening, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu confirmed the substance was Novichok.

He said there is no intelligence to say the pair were "targeted" in any way.

Mr Basu said it was "a line of inquiry" over whether the latest poisoning was linked to that of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March.

Charlie and Dawn were found unconscious at a property on Saturday, with one friend describing how Charlie was "garbling" and acting like a "zombie".

The couple's flat is around eight miles from where Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok in March this year.

Today, a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee took place at official level in the Cabinet Office to discuss the events.

It was understood samples of the substance were sent to the Government chemical weapons research laboratory at Porton Down.

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In a press statement this evening, Mr Basu said: "Earlier today, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills, from Wiltshire Police gave an update on the situation. However, I can confirm tonight that there has been a significant development and that the Counter Terrorism Policing Network is now leading the investigation into this incident.

"This evening we have received test results from Porton Down that show the two people have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok.

"At approximately 10:15hrs on Saturday, 30 June, the South West Ambulance Service was called to a residential address in Amesbury, where a 44-year-old woman had collapsed. She was subsequently taken to hospital.

"At around 15:30hrs that day, the ambulance service was called back to the same address, where a 45-year-old man had also fallen ill. The man was taken to hospital and Wiltshire Police were informed.</s>LONDON — British police declared a major incident Wednesday after a man and a woman were exposed to an unknown substance close to the city of Salisbury, where a Russian former spy and his daughter were poisoned with nerve agent four months ago.

Emergency services were called to the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire county in southern England, after the pair, both in their 40s, were found unconscious in a property Saturday evening.

“They are both currently receiving treatment for suspected exposure to an unknown substance at Salisbury District Hospital. They are both in a critical condition,” Wiltshire Police said in a statement.

Police said the two were initially thought to have used heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs, but that more testing was now being carried out to determine the nature of the substance.

British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that the two were poisoned and that samples were sent to Porton Down, the nearby government laboratory, for testing.

The Sun reported that security chiefs fear that they could have been poisoned with same batch of Soviet-developed nerve agent used on Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, who were found unresponsive on a bench about 10 miles away in Salisbury on March 4.

More: Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital after poisoning

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said that counterterrorism officers were working with local police on the investigation, “given the recent events in Salisbury."

The places the Amesbury pair — whose identities weren’t immediately released — frequented before they became ill have been cordoned off in Amesbury and Salisbury as a precaution and police patrols have increased. The Sun reported that they are not known to have any links to Russia or security services.

Public health officials said there is not believed to be a significant health risk to the public, but this “will be continually assessed as further information becomes known.”

More: Who is Sergei Skripal? Russian spy found unconscious in English park sparks intrigue

Britain says the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok nerve agent and blames Russia. The Kremlin denies any responsibility. Sergei Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 for passing state secrets to Britain. He was released as part of a spy swap in 2010 and moved to Salisbury.

That poisoning incident has soured relations between Russia and many British allies including the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats on both sides.

Yulia was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital in April and her father was discharged from the same hospital in May. Both were taken to an undisclosed location for their protection.</s>Police officers guard outside a branch of Boots pharmacy, which has been cordoned off after two people were hospitalised and police declared a 'major incident', in Amesbury Thomson Reuters

AMESBURY, England (Reuters) - Britain's counter-terrorism chief said on Wednesday that two people who are critically ill in hospital in Wiltshire were exposed to the Novichok nerve agent, the same toxin that was used in an attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

The man and woman, both British, were found unwell at a house in Amesbury on Saturday, close to Salisbury where Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with nerve agent in March.
Police determine two British nationals found unconscious at a property in Amesbury, Wiltshire, on Saturday were poisoned using Novichok nerve agent of the same kind used in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, seven miles from Amesbury, almost four months ago.