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Wiltshire Police said the area surrounding Prezzo restaurant has been closed while they work to establish what caused the "medical incident" involving a man and a woman on Sunday. Emergency services, including officers in full-body hazmat suits and face masks, four police cars, four ambulances and a fire engine are currently at the scene. The patients are currently conscious and being treated at the scene by medics. A witness claimed other diners at the restaurant were taken to Salisbury Hospital, where doctors have told them they may need blood tests.

Salisbury District Hospital's intensive care unit at is on standby to receive the patients, according to Sky News. The ambulance service called officers to the Italian chain restaurant, in High Street, at 6.45pm on Sunday. Four ambulances were sent including a hazardous area response team, a South Western Ambulance Service spokeswoman said. It comes just six months after former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with deadly nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in March. The pair were found slumped and unresponsive on a bench after eating at a Zizzi restaurant.

Salisbury news: The city centre has been cordoned off

I've been told two people were taken ill in there Witness Sam Proudfoot

Prezzo is on the High Street - just a few hundred years from Zizzi, where Mr Skripal and his daughter had eaten before they were taken ill after the nerve agent was put on the front door handle of his house on March 4. A witness took to Twitter to claim it was a "Russian couple" who became sick as they were eating inside the restaurant. Amanda Worne said on Twitter: "Feeling a little apprehensive as Salisbury leaps to action again when 2 Russians are taken ill in Prezzos showing the same symptoms as before ..... AND WE WERE SITTING NEXT TO THEM!" However the identities and nationalities of the patients have not yet been confirmed by police. Public Health England said they had been made aware of the incident.

Salisbury news: Police stand behind the cordon in the cathedral town

Salisbury news: Police said two people fell ill

Roads were cordoned off around the Italian restaurant on the corner of High Street as police tried to determine what caused them to fall ill. Closures are affecting New Street, Crane Street and the entrance to the Cathedral Close. Another witness Sam Proudfoot, 16, said he saw a person in a hazardous material suit go between the restaurant and the ambulance. He said diners inside the restaurant were asked for their details and told to remain inside the cordon. Mr Proudfoot said: "I've been told two people were taken ill in there.

"There's a man in a full white body suit with a mask to his mouth going in and out of the back of the ambulance and the restaurant." Mr Proudfoot earlier tweeted: "Trouble in Salisbury again on New Street near the cathedral, no sign of what's happened but there's 1 fire engine, 1 ambulance and 4 police cars, a man in a full white body suit with a mouth-mask and police not allowed to tell us what's happening. "Somebody apparently taken ill in Prezzo restaurant." A witness in the nearby Cafe Rouge restaurant said they could see police bagging something up in the street outside. People inside the Old Ale House pub were told they could not leave as crews put on hazmat suits outside, according to local news site Salisbury Journal.

Salisbury has been hit by Novichok poisonings

Salisbury news: Emergency services are on the scene

A worker at neabry pub The New Inn said: "Police have been very vague about the whole thing. We don't know what's going on. "As soon as the emergency services turned up people started evacuating. We've only got a few customers left." Police later said there was not believed to be a link to Novichok. Wiltshire Police said: "Police were called by the ambulance service to Prezzo, High Street, Salisbury at 6.45pm today following a medical incident involving two people. "As a precautionary measure, the restaurant and surrounding roads have been cordoned off while officers attend the scene and establish the circumstances surrounding what has led them to fall ill."

Salisbury news: A woman has claimed it was two Russian people that were taken ill

Salisbury news: The couple fell ill in Prezzo