AMESBURY: British police scoured sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England on Friday, searching for a small vial feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok.

More than 100 officers were looking for clues in a race to understand how two local people were exposed to a nerve agent that was produced in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Police believe the couple may have come in contact with a contaminated vial or other item discarded in a public place after a March nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury.

British officials blamed the Skripals’ poisoning on Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement. The two new victims Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45 are in critical condition and were hospitalised after falling ill within hours of each other. At first authorities thought they might have had a bad drug reaction.

Ben Jordan, a friend, described Rowley as a scavenger who would pick up cigarette butts from the ground and often go through the trash cans outside charity shops in search of something he could use or sell.

“Anything and everything to sell, to survive, to use,” Jordan said. “What the charity shop doesn’t want, he will fix it or sell it or use it for himself.” His habit raises the possibility that Rowley might have picked up a used receptacle or another type of contaminated item while rummaging through trash.

Experts say just a few milligrams of the odourless Novichok liquid the weight of a snowflake is enough to kill a person within minutes. But finding residue before it poisons unwitting victims is the problem.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2018