Wiltshire Police confirm no nerve agent exposure for Salisbury diners

18 September 2018

BBC News

Two people who fell ill in a restaurant in Salisbury were not exposed to any kind of nerve agent, police have said.

Wiltshire Police declared a major incident after a man, 42, and a woman, 30, became ill at Prezzo in High Street on Sunday evening.  The force has now said the incident was "not being treated as suspicious" following tests on the pair.

A spokesman said: "We are not linking their illness to the recent poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury."

Inquiries into what caused the man and woman to fall ill are ongoing.

In March, Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed in Salisbury having been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok.

After weeks in hospital they were released, but in June two Amesbury residents fell ill after being exposed to the same nerve agent. Dawn Sturgess, 44, died and a murder inquiry was launched.

• Russian spy poisoning: What we know so far
• What are Novichok nerve agents?

The UK government has accused two Russian men, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, of attempting to kill the Skripals.

But in an interview on a Russian state-run news channel, they claimed to be tourists. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning.