Novichok victim mistaken for being drunk at church event moments before being hospitalised

Roy Collins, secretary at Amesbury Baptist Centre, told Premier News Hour Charlie Rowley attended a barbecue at the church on Saturday – apparently already displaying symptoms.

“He was very slow in conversation. Indeed a little bit incoherent,” he said.

“He looked as if he’d been suffering from excess of alcohol, that’s what I first thought. It was good to see them there. He smiled and was friendly, but he was generally very dishevelled and unkept in his appearance.”

Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were taken ill on Saturday in Amesbury, around eight miles from where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the same agent in Salisbury in March.

One theory understood to be under investigation is that the pair who were poisoned in the latest incident may have inadvertently found a discarded container – such as a phial or syringe – used to transport the nerve agent for the initial attack on the Skripals.

Novichok remains highly toxic for a considerable period of time, so even the tiniest trace remaining in a container picked up by the victims could account for their severe illness.

Collins said the community feels “violated” after the second nerve agent emergency in four months.

“We’re very much a part of Salisbury. Our family works there; our children go to college there. We’re very much a…