British police declared a major incident on Wednesday after a couple fell ill from possible exposure to an unknown substance near the southern English town of Salisbury.
Wiltshire police appealed for information after cordoning off sites in and around Amesbury and Salisbury in southern England overnight into Wednesday, Deutsche Welle reports.
A man and a woman in their 40s were found unconscious in a building in the southern town of Amesbury on Saturday evening.
They are being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance at Salisbury District Hospital.
Both are said to be in a critical condition.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were treated at the same hospital after they were discovered unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in March. They had been poisoned with a nerve agent.
Police initially thought the two patients fell ill after using heroin or crack cocaine but further tests are being carried out and police are "keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding this incident."
A Public Health England (PHE) spokesman said early Wednesday: "The current advice from PHE England, based upon the number of casualties affected, is that it is not believed that there is a significant health risk to the wider public. This will be continually assessed as further information becomes known."
We've declared a major incident after it is suspected that two people might have been exposed to an unknown substance in Amesbury. Full details here: https://t.co/yaaUqH97Tepic.twitter.com/xryG8Cy7nV
— Wiltshire Police (@wiltshirepolice) 4 июля 2018 г.
