Pub, pizza restaurant closed as mystery around illness of Russian spy grows

HAUNTING footage shows the moments before a couple were found in critical condition, with a busy pub and restaurant closed.

Yulia Skripal, 33, is critically ill in hospital after being exposed to an unidentified substance

A POPULAR restaurant and pub have been cordoned off as police hunt for the source of the mystery substance that has left a former spy and his daughter fighting for life in hospital.

It comes amid reports up to ten people were hospitalised including police and ambulance workers with itchy eyes and wheezing after Sergei Srkipal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in the UK town of Salisbury.

On Monday, CCTV and the first pictures of the pair emerged from moments before they were found outside The Maltings in broad daylight.

Both father and daughter remain critically ill in intensive care as police work to determine what substance they have been affected by and who is behind it.

MORE: Hunting the KGB killers

Mr Skripal, 66, was once a colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service but was jailed for 13 years in 2006 after being found guilty of sharing Russian state secrets to M16. In 2010 he was swapped for Russian spy-turned model Anna Chapman as part of a famous “spy swap” between the UK and Russia.

Meanwhile, Anna Chapman, shared a number of updates on her Facebook and Instagram pages, seemingly unaware of the drama unfolding in the UK.

CCTV footage is believed to show Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia before they were allegedly poisoned.

Yulia Skripal, 33, is critically ill in hospital.

Former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal has been living in Britain since a high-profile spy swap in 2010. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Kommersant Photo.

The sleepy town of Salisbury is most famous for its cathedral and has now been thrust into the centre of an international incident.

The investigation is now being led by UK counter-terrorism police because it “has the specialist expertise” to deal with the unusual case.

Wiltshire police said the Italian restaurant, Zizzi, and The Bishop’s Mill pub, near where the pair were found will remain cordoned off.

“At this time, we cannot confirm how long these cordons will remain in place,” police said.

Public Health England said there “doesn’t appear” to be any immediate risk to those in the area. It said the “small number” of emergency services personnel assessed after the incident have been released from hospital.

Eyewitness Freya Church, who saw the couple slumped on a bench after leaving work said it looked like the woman was passed out while the man was doing some “strange hand movements”.

“I felt anxious. I felt like I should step in ... It looked like they had been taking something quite strong,” she said.

Witness Freya Church said seeing the man and woman made her feel anxious. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA via AP.

The bizarre case has led to comparisons with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB agent turned whistleblower who died in London in 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium during a tea meeting in the Millenium Hotel.

That case sparked huge public fears over contamination as the poison was found in a popular sushi chain, stadium and throughout the hotel.

When asked about the connection between the two cases, Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said “we have to remember that Russian exiles are not immortal, they do all die and there can be a tendency for some conspiracy theories.”

“But likewise we have to be alive to the fact of state threats as illustrated by the Litvinenko case.”

KGB agent turned whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. His widow said the cases seem similar. Picture: AP Photo/File.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the incident could lead Britain to not participate “in the normal way” in the Russian World Cup if Moscow is proven to be behind it.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said it “bears all the hallmarks of a Russian attack” and said if proven, it could lead to retaliation including sanctions and frozen assets.

President Putin’s spokesman Dimitry Peskov said there had been no request for help from the UK but “Moscow is always ready to co-operate.”

In Salisbury, locals were jittery about the event that had shut down the centre of town following a week of snowfall and freezing weather under the “Beast from the east” weather system.

“It’s an intrusion of something rather horrible into the life of a peaceful town,” Kelvin Inglis, the 56-year-old vicar of the local St Thomas’s Church, told AFP.

Traders on market day were also counting the cost as the normally sleepy medieval city was turned into a major crime scene at the centre of a potentially explosive international incident.

“It’s a pain in the backside, after 10 days of closure because of the snow,” said florist Danny, in his 30s, as he set up his stall.

“This has certainly livened the place up,” said Henry, 66, who runs a seafood stall.

“I can’t remember this kind of excitement around Salisbury. First the snow, now this.”

- With wires