Yulia Skripal owes her life to a passing doctor, say first police on the scene

The daughter of Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal would have died had an off-duty doctor not come to her aid when she was struck down by novichok poisoning, police have revealed.

Yulia Skripal’s life was saved by the passing medic after she collapsed on a bench in Salisbury, according to a detailed account given by the first officers on the scene.

Miss Skripal, who had just arrived on a visit from Russia, and her father were targeted by a Kremlin hit squad who smeared the deadly nerve agent on the door of his home on March 4.

But at first, the emergency services thought the pair had suffered a drugs overdose when they were seen collapsed in the Maltings shopping centre in the Wiltshire city.

Sergeant Tracey Holloway told how she had said to her colleagues ‘Let’s have a relaxed day’ during a shift briefing at Bourne Hill police station shortly before they got the call at 4.15pm.

PC Alex Collins said they reached the scene in two minutes after driving through the pedestrianised area of the city centre with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring.

‘The female was on the floor on her side,’ he said. ‘There was a member of the public, who turned out to be a doctor, helping her, maintaining her airway. I believe if that doctor hadn’t done that, she would have died.’

The female doctor is believed to have placed Miss Skripal in the recovery position after discovering her ‘vomiting and fitting’ on the bench, and tended to her for almost 30 minutes.

But at first, the emergency services thought the pair had suffered a drugs overdose when they were seen collapsed in the Maltings shopping centre in the Wiltshire city [File photo]

Sergei Skripal (pictured) and his daughter Yulia were targeted with the nerve agent Novichok in a failed assassination attempt. Yulia Skripal’s life was saved by the passing medic after she collapsed on a bench in Salisbury, according to a detailed account given by the first officers on the scene [File photo]

PC Collins went on: ‘The male was in a very unusual position. He was sat on the bench, rigid, catatonic, staring into space. He was breathing but totally unresponsive.

‘We tried to help medically and to find out what had happened. Our first thought was that it was drugs.’

But they soon realised that the couple were not locally known addicts, were well dressed, and had a phone with Russian writing on.

‘It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t quite normal,’ said PC Collins.

The officers put a cordon in place and helped get the patients into an ambulance, but then ensured that the scene was cleaned up by firefighters wearing ‘hazmat’ suits – for fear the highly toxic drug fentanyl may have been involved. 

Sgt Holloway said: ‘There was a pile of vomit underneath the bench. I wasn’t happy about leaving that there because we didn’t know what could have been in it to make these people ill.’

Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov, right. They are suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack [File photo]

PC Collins took the precaution of leaving his uniform in his garage when he got home. 

He said: ‘I’m glad I did that. I was intending to have a shower but I was so knackered I just climbed into bed and fell asleep. I’ve got little kids and they were climbing all over me the next day, so the missus wasn’t particularly happy with that when it all came out.’

He was later told to bring all his kit to the station in case it had been contaminated.

Sgt Holloway told how the case continued to affect her as she lived near Sergei Skripal’s house, which is still being decontaminated.

She said: ‘I would go home to a crime scene. I was never really out of it. I did think about Sergei quite a lot. I used to wonder if I’d ever come across him in the street.

‘I’m more upset for both of them. They can’t lead a normal life.’