UK: Was critically-ill former Russian spy poisoned?

What happened to Sergei Skripal?

The retired Russian spy, convicted in his homeland of selling secrets to British intelligence, now lies criticially ill in hospital after being exposed to an unknown substance.

The 66-year-old and a woman half his age who was known to him were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping centre at Salisbury in England, where Skripal was granted refuge after a 'spy swap' in 2010.

Tests are underway to see what put the pair into intensive care, where they are both fighting for their lives.

Eyewitness Jamie Paine raised the alarm in the southern English city.

"It was like her body was dead," he said.

"Her legs were really stiff... you know when animals die, they have rigor mortis. Both her legs came together when people pulled (her), and when she was on the floor her eyes were just completely white. They were wide open but just white and frothing at the mouth. Then the man went stiff: his arms stopped moving, but he's still looking dead straight."

Authorities say there is no known risk to the public. But police closed the local Zizzi pizza restaurant as a precaution. Some investigators wore yellow chemical suits.

A worker at the shopping centre, Richard Eyre, told Euronews he had seen the aftermath of the incident and shared a photograph of the scene on Monday morning..

"I saw and heard the air ambulance helicopter, Sunday afternoon or evening, and the fire service in protective suits decontaminating the area."


Marina, the widow of Alexander Litvinenko told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that she fears similarities to the murder of her husband 12 years ago.

The ex-KGB agent was killed with radioactive polonium-210 in London - an act a British inquiry said was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has always denied any involvement in Litvinenko's death.

SOURCE: euronews with Reuters
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