Two British citizens were critically ill in a hospital on Wednesday after they were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, which struck down a former Russian agent and his daughter in March, Britain's top counterterrorism officer said.
The British pair, a 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, were hospitalized after being found unwell on Saturday in Amesbury, just a few miles from Salisbury, where ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were attacked in March.
"I have received test results from Porton Down (military research center) which show that the two people have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok," Neil Basu, Britain's most senior counterterrorism officer, told reporters.