(19 Mar 2018) On March 5th 2018 the British media reported that the Zizi restaurant in Salisbury had been closed as a precaution in connection with an incident in which 66-year-old former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was left critically ill by exposure to an unknown substance.
The media is quoting Wiltshire Police.
Skripal, 66, who was convicted in Russia on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison.
He was freed in 2010 as part of a US-Russian spy swap.
The discovery of the two people led to a dramatic decontamination effort.
Crews in billowing yellow moon suits worked into the night spraying down the street, and the Salisbury hospital's emergency room was closed.
***
There was a heavy police presence on March 6th near a shopping mall in a town in southern England where a former Russian spy was found after ,it is said, he suffered exposure to an "unknown substance".
The Kremlin said Russia has not been approached to help in an investigation over how and why the former spy was found critically ill on a bench near Maltings Shopping Centre in Salisbury.
A woman was also found unconscious on March 4th in Salisbury, about 90 miles (145 kilometres) west of London.
Dimitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said March 6th that there has been no request for help but that "Moscow is always ready to cooperate."
***
On March 7th ambulances and emergency vehicles rushed to central Salisbury in England amid jitters following the collapse of a former Russian spy and his daughter there.
An eyewitness says emergency services escorted two women on March 7th from a building near a restaurant that had been cordoned off by police searching for clues as to what prompted Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia to fall ill on March 4th.
Police and ambulance services declined to comment and it was not immediately clear if the incident had anything to do with the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile British counter-terror police cordoned off a new site in the case of the former Russian spy and his daughter.
London's Metropolitan Police secured Solstice Park, a business park in Amesbury near Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument and world heritage site.
Amesbury is about nine miles (14 kilometres) from Salisbury, where Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found collapsed on a bench on March 4th.
Lloyd Ridley, who works nearby as a mechanic, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that some 40 firemen stood outside as the area was cordoned off, adding there were four people "dressed up in hazmats going inside and retrieving stuff in these boxes and putting them outside in the cornered area."
British counterterrorism specialists have taken control of the case from local police trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to the pair.
The matter has not been declared a terrorist incident.
Police are also asking members of the public to come forward if they had visited a Salisbury pizza restaurant or pub where the couple were last seen on March 4th.
***
Britain's armed forces arrived in Salisbury on March 9th to help police investigate the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy.
Counterterrorism detectives asked for military help to remove vehicles and objects from a number of scenes related to March 4th's attack.
In a statement on the deployment, the defence secretary said the armed forces had the "right people with the right skills" to assist in the investigation.
***
A British police detective is also hospitalized in serious condition.
***
***
***
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Google+: [ Ссылка ]
Tumblr: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
