UK counterterrorism police probing incident near poisoned Russian spy’s home

AMESBURY, England — British counterterrorism police are investigating Wednesday after two people were left in critical condition, exposed to an unknown substance a few miles from where a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent.

The Wiltshire Police force declares a “major incident” after a man and a woman in their 40s were hospitalized after being found unconscious Saturday at a residential building in Amesbury, eight miles (13 kilometers) from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4.

London’s Metropolitan Police force says “given the recent events in Salisbury,” counterterrorism officers are working with local police on the investigation. British media reports that samples of the mystery substance had been sent to the Portdon Down defense research laboratory for testing.

Police cordon off a home and other places the two people visited before falling ill, including a nearby church and a pharmacy, but health officials say there was not believed to be a wider risk to the public.

A major incident is a designation allowing British authorities to mobilize more than one emergency agency.

The emergency services’ response echoes that in the case of the Skripals, whose illness initially baffled doctors after they were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. Scientists at Porton Down concluded they had been poisoned with Novichok, a type of nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

— AP