LONDON, July 5, 2018 (News Wires) Residents in the small town in southwestern England where a second case of poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok has been reported say they're worried about the potential for more contamination. Michelle Jordan, a local resident in Amesbury, says she's had to tell her two children not to touch anything when they go to the park and to wash their hands. She says that she hopes authorities "can just find, some answers and clear things up for us so we can get back to normal." Authorities had tried to eliminate any traces of the chemical weapon after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in March in the nearby city of Salisbury. Authorities said Thursday they believe two new victims, who were hospitalized in critical condition Saturday, were not directly targeted but sickened as a consequence of the previous attack. The Kremlin's spokesman says Russia is concerned with a second case of nerve agent poisoning in England, emphasizing that Russia has nothing to do with either case. British police said Wednesday that a couple in their 40s were in critical condition after being poisoned by the same Soviet-designed agent that nearly killed former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. Britain blamed Russia for the March poisoning — an accusation Moscow vehemently denied. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that "Russia has categorically denied and continues to categorically deny the possibility of any kind of involvement to what was happening there." Peskov noted Britain has rejected Russia's offer for a joint probe, adding that "the British side has not presented any evidence of Russia's involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations."
