U.K. official accuses Russia of using Britain as 'dumping grounds for poison,' after 2 fall ill

Britain's interior minister accused Russia on Thursday of turning the U.K. into a "dumping grounds for poison," and demanded an explanation on how two people were inadvertently poisoned with the same military-grade nerve agent used to attack a former Russian spy and his daughter in the same area four months ago.

A 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old manwere critically ill after an apparentchance encounter withthe poison near the site of the March attack on ex-double agentSergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Britain accused Russia of poisoning the Skripals withNovichok a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military during the Cold War in what is the first known offensive use of sucha chemical weapon on European soil since World War II.

Police said the pair was poisoned after handling a contaminated item.

The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequences of the previous attack or something else, but not that they were directly targeted.- Ben Wallace,British security minister

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Thursday that it is now time for Russia to explain "exactly what has gone on."

"It is completely unacceptable for our people to be either deliberate or accidental targets, or for our streets, our parks, our towns to be dumping grounds for poison," Javid said.

Russia, which is currently hosting the soccer World Cup, hasdenied any involvement in the March incident, and suggested theBritish security services had carried out the attack to stokeanti-Moscow hysteria.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskovnoted thatBritain hadpreviously rejected Russia's offer for a joint probe. Peskov said"the British side has not presented any evidence of Russia's involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations."

Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking alongside ChancellorAngela Merkel in Germany during a visit to Berlin, said it was"deeply disturbing" that two more people had been exposed toNovichok.

Nerve agent slow to decompose

The two Britons, who fell ill on Saturday, wereinitially thought to have taken an overdose of heroin or crack cocaine, but tests by the Porton Down military research centreshowed they had been exposed to Novichok.

Britain should ask Russian experts to help investigate thepoisoning, Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Russian parliament'sdefence committee, was cited as saying by the RIA news agency.

It is unclear how the two Britons, whose background hasnothing to suggest a link to the world of espionage or the former Soviet Union, came into contact with the poison, which isslow to decompose.

"The working assumption would be that these are victims ofeither the consequences of the previous attack or somethingelse, but not that they were directly targeted," Wallace said.

Paramedics were called on Saturday morning to a house inAmesbury after the woman, named by media as Dawn Sturgess,collapsed. They returned later in the day when the man, CharlieRowley, also fell ill.

Amesbury is located 11 kilometresnorth of Salisbury,where Skripala former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain's MI6foreign spy service and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench on March 4.

Novichok contamination

Health chiefs said the risk to the public was low, repeatingtheir earlier advice, given after the Skripalsfellill, that the public should wash their clothes and use cleansingwipes to wash down personal items.

But the exposure of two British citizens to a such adangerous nerve agent will stoke fears that Novichok could be lingering at sites around the ancient English city of Salisbury.

Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at UniversityCollege London, said Novichok nerve agents were designed to bequite persistent and did not decompose quickly.

"That means that if a container or a surface wascontaminated with this material it would remain a danger for a long time," Sella said. "It will be vital to trace the movements of this couple toidentify where they might have come into contact with the source."

After the Skripal poisoning, police investigators inprotective hazmat suits scoured Salisbury. They may return, police said.

The March attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion ofRussian diplomats since the Cold War as allies sided with PrimeMinister Theresa May's view that Moscow was either responsibleor had lost control of the nerve agent.

Moscow also hit back by expelling Western diplomats,questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering rival interpretations, including that it amounted to aplot by British secret services.