British police are scouring sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok.
More than 100 officers are looking for clues today in a race to understand how two local people in Amesbury were exposed to a nerve agent that was produced in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Police believe they were somehow exposed to a contaminated container that may have been used in a March nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in nearby Salisbury.
The two new victims Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45 are in critical condition.
British officials blamed the March poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal on Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement.