A WOMAN who sat next to one of two people who fell ill prompting a Novichok scare at a Salisbury restaurant said police told her the victims were Russian.

Amanda Worne, 47, from Yapton, near Littlehampton, said “Armageddon” broke out as emergency services responded to the incident at the city’s Prezzo restaurant at 6.45pm on Sunday.

A major incident was declared when a man in his forties and a woman in her thirties became unwell and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital.

Roads were closed and police and paramedics in protective suits were deployed amid heightened tensions since the first Novichok attack in the city in March.

Wiltshire Police said that because of concerns the pair had been exposed to an unknown substance “a highly precautionary approach” had been taken.

They later confirmed that Novichok was not involved.

Mrs Worne, who uses a wheelchair after being paralysed in a cycling accident, said she had gone to the restaurant with a friend after finishing a flying lesson and had asked the woman, who she described as a “beautiful blonde”, if she could sit next to her on a sofa in the restaurant.

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Mrs Worne said: “The girl, she looked slightly dishevelled, there was something about her, she wasn’t comfortable, she wasn’t relaxed. She was really peculiar, she was stunning but her skirt was a bit skew-whiff, she was a bit stumbling, she didn’t look right.

“She kept getting up and down and acting a little unusual, she went up to the toilet and came down hysterical ‘Oh my God, we need an ambulance, we need an ambulance, someone help we need an ambulance’.”

Mrs Worne said the paramedics arrived quickly and after seeing the couple, rushed out and returned with protective clothing.

She said: “The paramedic, he was grey, the perspiration, you could see he was so apprehensive, he said ‘just get out’.”

Mrs Worne said she called 999 to ask where the police were and they arrived shortly afterwards.

She added: “The next thing it was all carnage, it was Armageddon, there were sirens, ambulances.

“For us personally it was very, very frightening.

“We were told by a police officer there were two Russians showing symptoms of the Novichok virus and we would probably have to go to hospital for blood tests.”

Mrs Worne added that she was later given the all-clear.