UK to retaliate nerve agent attack on Skripal

Britain vowed Thursday to act “without hesitation” if a state is found responsible for a nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, as police said 21 people in total had received medical treatment following the incident.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain unconscious in a critical but stable condition following the attack on Sunday in the sleepy south-western English city of Salisbury.

Sergeant Nick Bailey, one of first officers to find the pair slumped on a bench outside a shopping centre and who was later hospitalised in intensive care, was sitting up and talking on Thursday, according to police.

“There’s been around 21 people (treated),” said Kier Pritchard, chief constable for Wiltshire Police, noting that included “multiple officers”.

“A number of those have been through the hospital treatment process, they’re having blood tests, they’re having treatment in terms of support and advice,” he added.

Pritchard said he had spoken to Bailey and his wife in hospital, adding that “he’s well, he’s sat up” but was “very anxious”.

The Mill pub in Salisbury was closed in connection to the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter

Authorities are racing to identify the nerve agent used against the 66-year-old Skripal, who came to Britain in a spy swap in 2010, as politicians warned it showed the hallmarks of an attack by Russia.

Interior minister Amber Rudd told MPs that the “brazen and reckless” attack was “attempted murder in the most cruel and public way” but declined to single any perpetrator out.

Noting it was “highly likely” that the officer, Bailey, was exposed to the same nerve agent as the Russian pair, she said Britain “will act without hesitation as the facts become clearer”.

The Russian embassy in London, which earlier in the week criticised Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for blaming Moscow, welcomed Rudd’s “responsible practical approach”.

Prime Minister Theresa May said that “if action needs to be taken then the government will do that”, but urged “time and space” for the police to conduct their investigation.