Amesbury incident latest: Locals left 'scared and unnerved' as police reveal couple were exposed to novichok

'You’re expecting the people to walk about like everything’s normal? No'

It’s a place where, the locals say, “nothing ever happens” – yet for the second time in a matter of months Amesbury has found itself at the centre of interest from across the globe because of a nerve agent poisoning.

The Wiltshire town – perhaps previously best known as Britain’s oldest continually occupied settlement – is just minutes from Salisbury where former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were exposed to novichok in March.

As television cameras descended, neighbours of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, who police have confirmed were exposed to the same toxin, were once again coming to terms with the reality of police on their doorsteps, cordoned-off streets and international attention.

“We just really want to know what’s happening now, and who’s responsible,” said Jane Davies, 51, who lives around the corner from the house on Muggleton Road where Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley were taken ill.

Her 14-year-old daughter Eleanor added: “It’s weird just to see Amesbury and Salisbury all over the news, you’d never suspect it. We kind of thought everything was over. It had blown over and everything’s been forgotten about. But now it’s come back again. It kind of scares me now.”

Others seemed were blissfully unaware of the incident developing in a town where, one local teenager claimed, “nothing ever happens”.

“That’s crazy,” Ben Horwood told The Independent upon hearing of the incident as he was walking home from work.

The 25-year-old warehouse worker said he had been “wary” since learning of the Skripal poisoning four months ago. “But Russians, that’s who’s doing it, they’re taking over our world, with all this nerve agent stuff.”

Another local, out walking his dog said his house lost all power over the weekend and he had to reset everything. He was initially told by his son there had been a hydrogen leak.

“I’m ex-military so there’s not a lot that worries me… I just take it in my stride,”said Craig Wilde, a 52-year-old mechanic. “Maybe there is something being targeted round here, you don’t know do you?”

Another Amersbury woman, who wished to remain anonymous, summed up the mood of the town.

“It’s a bit unnerving,” she said. “It’s got bigger, and you’re expecting the people to walk about like everything’s normal? No, it is a bit scary because you don’t know what’s going down.

“We thought as far as the Salisbury incident… that was it, now it’s exposed it all over again.”