01:40UK: Police urge public to 'keep an open mind'' over Amesbury case
Chief Constable of Wiltshire police Kier Pritchard urged members of the public to keep an open mind about possible links between the alleged poisoning by nerve agent of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and the hospitalisation of a couple in Amesbury, in a statement from the Wiltshire town on Thursday.
"They are not in a position to say whether the nerve agent used in this latest incident was from the same batch that was used both with Sergei and Yulia Skripal and our officer, Sergent Nick Bailey, who clearly were exposed to this back in March of this year. The possibility that these two investigations may be linked it's clearly a line of enquiry, but it is important that we keep an open mind and we don't speculate on this issue at this moment.” said Pritchard, commenting on the Counter Terrorism Policing Network early investigations.
The couple – identified as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess – were taken to Salisbury hospital, after being found unconscious and in a critical condition at an address on Muggleton Road in Amesbury last Saturday.
Police have since declared it a “major incident” and cordoned off a number of locations in the Amesbury and Salisbury area. UK counter-terrorism officers have also joined the investigation.
Amesbury is a short distance from the UK chemical weapons laboratory Porton Down and the site where Sergei and Yulia Skripal collapsed after being allegedly poisoned by a nerve agent in March.
01:40Chief Constable of Wiltshire police Kier Pritchard urged members of the public to keep an open mind about possible links between the alleged poisoning by nerve agent of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and the hospitalisation of a couple in Amesbury, in a statement from the Wiltshire town on Thursday.
"They are not in a position to say whether the nerve agent used in this latest incident was from the same batch that was used both with Sergei and Yulia Skripal and our officer, Sergent Nick Bailey, who clearly were exposed to this back in March of this year. The possibility that these two investigations may be linked it's clearly a line of enquiry, but it is important that we keep an open mind and we don't speculate on this issue at this moment.” said Pritchard, commenting on the Counter Terrorism Policing Network early investigations.
The couple – identified as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess – were taken to Salisbury hospital, after being found unconscious and in a critical condition at an address on Muggleton Road in Amesbury last Saturday.
Police have since declared it a “major incident” and cordoned off a number of locations in the Amesbury and Salisbury area. UK counter-terrorism officers have also joined the investigation.
Amesbury is a short distance from the UK chemical weapons laboratory Porton Down and the site where Sergei and Yulia Skripal collapsed after being allegedly poisoned by a nerve agent in March.