Amesbury poisoning latest: People in Salisbury should avoid picking up discarded objects after latest nerve agent incident, says Public Health England

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “We don’t know everything that happened before, during and after the attack on the Skripals.” He suggested that the fact Mr Sturgess and Mr Rowley did not fall ill until the day after they visited Salisbury indicates that they may have been exposed to a lower concentration of novichok, which therefore took longer to be absorbed into their bodies and take effect. The senior officer said police could not yet say whether the nerve agent was from the “same batch” that the Skripals were exposed to and were not making any assumptions. Police have cordoned off several sites visited by the pair including a park and supported accommodation for homeless people in Salisbury, Mr Rowley’s home in Amesbury, and a chemist and Baptist church he visited before falling ill. open image in gallery Police activity outside a block of flats on Muggleton Road in Amesbury, Wiltshire, where a couple were poisoned with a nerve agent Queen Elizabeth Gardens sits just metres away from where the Skripals were found unconscious on a bench in The Maltings shopping district of Salisbury, while John Baker House is just a four-minute walk from a Zizzi’s restaurant where the victims ate. A former resident of the accommodation claimed Ms Sturgess may have been exposed to nerve agent by collecting cigarette ends, adding: “Lots of people collect half smoked cigarettes - if that's what got the spy and he's chucked it down somewhere, Dawn could have picked it up.” Public health officials initially said there was no risk to the public in March, but later told diners to wash their clothing and jewellery as military personnel moved in wearing protective suits to cordon off potentially contaminated sites.