'Unknown substance' lands two in hospital in Salisbury: British police

The two patients are in critical condition, police said. Pic/AFP

British police said yesterday that two people are in a critical condition in a Salisbury hospital after being exposed to an "unknown substance", just a short distance from where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned.

The two patients "are both currently receiving treatment for suspected exposure to an unknown substance at Salisbury District Hospital," Wiltshire police said.

"They are both in a critical condition," the police said, adding that they considered the situation a "major incident". The two people, a man and a woman both in their 40s, were discovered unconscious on Saturday June 30 at a house in the village of Amesbury, which is around a dozen kilometres from Salisbury.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury where the former double agent lived in March, sparking a bitter diplomatic crisis between Moscow and London, which says a Soviet-made nerve agent dubbed novichok was used on the pair.

Police said they initially suspected that the two people had fallen ill after using "possibly heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs."

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