Unclear if crime committed in ‘unknown substance’ case near Salisbury - UK police
UK police said it's unclear if any crime was committed regarding the two people in critical condition in Salisbury hospital and assured there's no threat to public. 'Unknown substance' that made them ill is being tested.
The incident happened in Amesbury, just 12km from Salisbury, the scene of the dramatic and highly politicized poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March. Hours after the initial reports, the case was referred to the counter-terrorism division of the police.
On Saturday, June 30, Paramedics were called to an address in Muggleton Road, Amesbury in the morning after a woman collapsed at the property. They returned to the same location in the evening receiving reports that a man was unwell.
Speaking to media on Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills said it was initially believed that the patients, a man of 45 and a woman of 44, both British nationals had “fell ill after possibly using drugs from a contaminated batch."
"However, further testing is now ongoing to establish the substance which led to these patients becoming ill," he added.
While Mills did not name the patients in question, Sky News reports that they have been named locally as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess.
While Mills maintained that is remains "unclear if any crime was committed," and that there's no danger to wider public, counter-terrorism police are investigating the incident and that the “public can expect to see an increased police presence” at the locations that the couple visited before the incident and in and around the Amesbury and Salisbury areas.
In the 24 hour since news of the pair’s condition broke, the social media rumor mill has been awash with theories that the incident is in some way related to the Skripal’s poisoning in March in lieu of any real information.
Theories include: an international distraction by Russia ahead of the upcoming Putin-Trump summit; a British government distraction from Brexit; or maybe that it was a drug overdose after all.
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