The drama started last Saturday morning when an ambulance was called to a residential address in Amesbury where a 44-year-old woman had collapsed. Five hours later an ambulance was called back to the same address where the 45 year old man had also taken ill.

Paramedics wearing protective clothing took the man to hospital where the woman was already being treated.

Basu added: "From initial assessment it was thought that the two patients had fallen ill after using drugs from a potentially contaminated batch. Following the detailed analysis of samples we can confirm that the man and woman have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which has been identified as the same nerve agent that contaminated both Yulia and Sergei Skripal."

He said the latest update from the hospital in Salisbury is that both patients remain in a critical condition. Both are British nationals and are local to the area.

Basu said at this stage no-one else has presented with the same symptoms linked to this incident.

"The priority for the investigation team now, is to establish how these two people have come into contact with this nerve agent," he added.

Around 100 detectives from the Counter Terrorism Policing Network are now working on the investigation, alongside officers from Wiltshire Police.

He said a number of sites in the Amesbury and Salisbury areas that police believe the two individuals visited in the period before they fell ill were cordoned off by police last night.

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