A man and woman fell ill at a Prezzo restaurant in the UK, after concerns that they had been exposed to “an unknown substance”. This happened at a restaurant in Salisbury, the English city where former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in March, police said.
So far, nothing has been found that suggests that the nerve agent Novichok was the substance involved in making the two people ill. It is still unclear whether a crime had been committed. Enquiries were continuing, police said.
The restaurant where this incident took place happens to be a short walk from Queen Elizabeth Gardens, which was closed off after Dawn Sturgess was fatally poisoned by novichok at the end of June.
Novicvhok is the nerve agent that was used to target former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were found unresponsive on a bench in Salisbury after they had eatten at a Zizzi restaurant about 0.2 miles from Prezzo.
Shortly after police were called to Prezzo on Sunday evening, witnesses reported seeing police “covering someone up” with a blanket, the Salisbury Journal reported.
According to a witness at a nearby Cafe Rouge restaurant, they said they saw police bagging something up in the street while others said they had been locked in a nearby pub as a hazardous area response team and four ambulances were sent to Prezzo.
One witness Sam Proudfoot, 16, said he saw a man “in a full white body suit with a mask to his mouth going in and out of the back of the ambulance and the restaurant”.
He told Sky News that everyone inside the restaurant had their details taken, and were told to stay within the cordoned area.
6 police cars, an ambulance, two incident response units and two fire engines were at the scene, he added.
Wiltshire Police said it received a call from the ambulance service at about 6.45pm following reports that a man and a woman had fallen ill.
“Both were taken to Salisbury District Hospital and were clinically assessed,” a force spokeswoman said.
Article sourced from https://news.sky.com/story/salisbury-restaurant-cordoned-off-by-police-after-pair-taken-ill-11500197
