SALISBURY, England: British media reported Monday that a former Russian spy was in critical condition after coming into contact with an 鈥渦nknown substance,鈥� a case that immediately drew parallels to the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Authorities did not identify the man, saying only that he and a woman were found unconscious Sunday afternoon on a bench in a shopping mall in Salisbury, an English city about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of London.
British media identified him as Sergei Skripal, 66, who was convicted in Russia on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison. Skripal was freed in 2010 as part of a US-Russian spy swap.
Wiltshire Police, which is responsible for the Salisbury area, only identified the man and woman by their approximate ages and said they appeared to know one another and 鈥渄id not have any visible injuries.鈥�
鈥淭hey are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. Both are currently in a critical condition in intensive care,鈥� police said in a statement.
The discovery of the unconscious pair led to a dramatic decontamination effort. Crews in billowing yellow moon suits worked into the night spraying down the street, and the Salisbury hospital鈥檚 emergency room was closed.
The BBC, which first identified Skripal as one of the victims, quoted eyewitness Freya Church as saying it looked like the two people had taken 鈥渟omething quite strong.鈥�
鈥淥n the bench there was a couple, an older guy and a younger girl. She was sort of leaned in on him. It looked like she had passed out, maybe,鈥� Church said.
鈥淗e was doing some strange hand movements, looking up to the sky,鈥� she said.
Public Health England said in a statement that it had only limited information about the patients, but there 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 appear to be any further immediate risk to public health.鈥�
鈥淧HE understands that those exposed to the substances have been decontaminated,鈥� the health agency said.
Public records list Skripal as having an address in Salisbury.
Skripal served with Russia鈥檚 military intelligence, often known by its Russian-language acronym GRU, and retired in 1999. He then worked at the Foreign Ministry until 2003 and later became involved in business.
After his 2004 arrest in Moscow, he confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995 and said he provided information about GRU agents in Europe, receiving over $100,000 in return.
At the time of Skripal鈥檚 trial, the Russian media quoted the FSB domestic security agency as saying that the damage from his activities could be compared to harm inflicted by Oleg Penkovsky, a GRU colonel who spied for the United States and Britain. Penkovsky was executed in 1963.
Skripal was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a US-Russian-spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the United States.
The circumstances surrounding Sunday鈥檚 incident were still murky and police urged the public not to speculate. But few could avoid invoking the name of Litvinenko 鈥� the former Russian agent who died after drinking polonium-210-laced tea in a swanky London hotel in 2006.
His bizarre illness was initially treated as unexplained before evidence eventually emerged indicating he had been deliberately poisoned.
In a report published in 2016, a British judge wrote Litvinenko was killed in assassination carried out by Russia鈥檚 security services 鈥� with the likely approval of President Vladimir Putin. Russia has denied any responsibility for Litvinenko鈥檚 death鈥�
Keir Giles, the director of the Conflict Studies Research Center in Cambridge, England, said he 鈥渨ould be surprised if this were not linked back to Russia in some direct way.鈥�
He said he could not rule out an overdose or some other kind of accidental poisoning 鈥� but found it hard to picture such a scenario 鈥渢hat would lead to a full-scale decontamination of the street and the hospital.鈥�
Giles also invoked a string of suspicious deaths of Russian government opponents in Britain since Litvinenko鈥檚 slaying.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just Litvinenko,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard not to see a pattern of the attacks becoming more and more brazen.鈥�
Igor Sutyagin, who was part of the same spy swap as Skripal and now is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said there was not enough evidence to point fingers in any direction.
鈥淭here are lots of former security officers that deserted to the West,鈥� he said, urging caution until more is known. 鈥淚t is necessary to balance this information.鈥�