British PM urges global response in visit to spy attack scene

SALISBURY: British Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday the international community was taking a "united stance" against Russia as she made her first visit to the scene of a nerve agent attack.

She met members of the emergency services and the military deployed to the southwestern English city of Salisbury, where Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4.

She also paid a private visit to Nick Bailey, a local policeman who became ill after attending to the pair. He remains in a serious condition in hospital but is said to be making good progress.



May has blamed Moscow for the attack and on Wednesday announced the expulsion of 23 diplomats and the suspension of some high-level contacts.

She signed a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany and the United States demanding answers from Russia, which has repeatedly denied any involvement.

"What is important in the international arena -- and we have taken this into NATO, into the United Nations, we'll take it through into the European Union -- is that allies are standing alongside us and saying this is part of a pattern of activity that we have seen from Russia in their interference, their disruption that they have perpetrated across a number of countries in Europe," she said.



"This happened in the UK but it could have happened anywhere and we take a united stance against it."

Parts of Salisbury have been turned in a crime scene, as experts in biohazard suits take samples from the places visited by the Skripals before they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre.

Almost 200 troops have been deployed to help the investigation, while members of the public who may have been in the area at the time have been urged to wash their clothes.

A ministerial taskforce convened Thursday to help organise the clean-up operation and May pledged government support "to ensure that the city can recover, that we see tourists coming back to this city".