Salisbury reeling after 'Russian couple' collapse in restaurant - but police rule out Novichok

The evacuation of a Salisbury pizzeria after a couple mysteriously collapsed will hit the city hard in its recovery from the nerve agent attack, its council leader said on Monday.

The Wiltshire cathedral city was reeling after a man, aged 42, and his 30-year-old female dining companion - said to be Russians - were rushed to hospital with suspected poisoning.

Wiltshire Police have ruled out Novichok - the nerve agent used in the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal - but were unable to say on Monday why the couple collapsed in Prezzo restaurant.

Matthew Dean, leader of Salisbury City Council, said: “Footfall remains significantly down with the tourist sector in particular depressed and that is causing hardship for some Salisbury businesses. We need to move on and demonstrate we are open for business but false alarms like this impede that progress.”

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Davies-Bateman said last night: “Although we were able to rule out the presence of Novichok quickly, tests are ongoing to understand what, if anything, the pair have come into contact with which may have caused them to fall unwell. It is crucial that this is done methodically. At this stage, it is unclear as to whether or not a crime has been committed.”

Official figures from Salisbury Business Improvement District show visitor numbers have declined dramatically since March when Colonel Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked. Total visitor numbers are down 12 per cent since the attack with spikes in March and April and again in July and August after Dawn Sturgess died from Novichok after inadvertently coming into the contact with the nerve agent discarded by hitmen working for Russian military intelligence.

Police refused to disclose the nationalities of the couple who collapsed following  the incident in Prezzo in Salisbury High Street on Sunday evening. The restaurant remained shut on a Monday and a cordon remained around it.

One of the diners evacuated Amanda Worne, 47 from Arundel, West Sussex, said: “We were told by police the two people involved in the incident were Russian.”

She described how the man had collapsed in the toilet while his blonde dining companion had been acting in an agitated state. 

Mrs Worne said that “armageddon” broke out as police and the emergency services responded. Roads were cordoned off and police and paramedics wearing protective suits were deployed amid heightened tensions.

Mrs Worne added: “The girl, she looked slightly dishevelled, there was something about her, she wasn’t comfortable, she wasn’t relaxed. She was really peculiar, she was stunning but her skirt was a bit skew-whiff, she was a bit stumbling, she didn’t look right.”

She continued: “She kept getting up and down and acting a little unusual, she went up to the toilet and came down hysterical ‘Oh my God, we need an ambulance, we need an ambulance, someone help we need an ambulance’.

“The next thing it was all carnage, it was armageddon, there were sirens, ambulances.”

The Skripals dined in another Italian restaurant Zizzi prior to collapsing on a bench near a shopping centre.