A feeling of shock in Salisbury has drawn more people to Easter services but is also frightening away tourists

For 750 years, Salisbury Cathedral has marked the drama of Holy Week and Easter in the same way – with services focusing on suffering, death and resurrection. But this year there is a special poignancy to the prayers.

The people of Salisbury are remembering the plight of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the Russians who collapsed just a short distance away from the cathedral, following a nerve agent attack blamed on the Russian state.

Skripal, a former Russian double agent who arrived in Britain in 2010 after a spy swap, and his daughter Yulia have been in hospital in Salisbury since they were found collapsed on a bench at the Maltings shopping centre on March 4.

News of the attack has drawn local people to church while also causing tourists to stay away from the city. There has been a 40% drop in visitors to the cathedral since 4 March.

On Good Friday, two services were held at the cathedral, attended by hundreds. At the midday devotion, prayers were said for the Skripals. Later, during a liturgy of great solemnity where the choir sang laments and the crucifixion story according to St John was read, the acting dean, Canon Edward Probert, said: “Jesus plumbed the very depths of human suffering. We have to take up the cross and follow him and identify with the suffering of the world.”

One visitor, Charles Hull, who had travelled from London for the service, said: “I thought of the Skripals several times during the service, which focused on the agony of crucifixion but others’ agony too.”

A retired priest and his wife said that they had come to Salisbury Cathedral to show solidarity with the city at this time. “We felt we had to come to express our support after this terrible attack in the streets here,” they said.

Earlier, a Good Friday procession of witness had taken place in the town centre. Among those attending was the Rev Jonathan Plows, from St Thomas’s Church, just yards from where the Skripals were found. “A lot of people have been really shaken by what has happened here,” he said. “We have had people coming into the church and created a special place, with a candle, for them to pray.

“The story of Good Friday and Easter really resonates with what took place in Salisbury, with darkness leading to light. An awful thing has happened but the community has come together.”

Prayers for the Skripals will be said again today at the cathedral’s Easter service, presided over by the Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam.

In his sermon on Maundy Thursday, Holtam said that what had happened to the Skripals was “not just an attack on them but a violation of the city itself”.

And he added: “The difficulties of the last few weeks following the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal have created anxiety, anger, desolation and bewilderment.”

That anxiety has certainly affected Salisbury profoundly. People have seen soldiers and police officers in the town in protective suits; those who were in the city centre on 4 March have been urged to wash their clothing. Zizzi, where the Skripals ate, remains closed. About 250 counter-terrorism detectives continue to work around the clock on the investigation, which is expected to continue for months.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yulia Skripal has been removed from the critical list. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

With the attack reported around the world, and governments expelling Russian diplomats in response, the tourists disappeared. Visitors are vital for the economy of Salisbury, mostly attracted by the cathedral. With its 403ft spire dominating the skyline, it draws visitors from all over the world, many of whom know it because of John Constable’s masterpiece, showing a view of it from nearby meadows.

According to the cathedral’s director of communications and development, Jane Morgan, visitor numbers have dropped like a stone since the Skripal attack. The devotees of early English architecture and the coachloads of school children have gone elsewhere.

“It costs £5m a year to run the cathedral,” said Morgan, “and our biggest source of income is visitors. They contribute £1.3m a year in donations and what they spend. We are working hard to encourage people to return. Once people know Salisbury is safe again, hopefully visitors will return. But it is going to be quite a long haul”.

The lack of tourists has hurt the local economy and last week the government announced a £1m fund to help boost business and tourism there. Now Salisbury is hoping that Easter will be the start of a revival in visitors. Holtam has urged people to recall the words of Desmond Tutu, the former South African archbishop and anti-apartheid campaigner who is a canon of the cathedral: “Goodness is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger that death.”

Wiltshire police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to the nerve agent, was discharged from hospital last week.

And as news emerged this weekend of Yulia Skripal regaining consciousness and no longer being on the critical list, people in Salisbury were rejoicing at this first indication that life might return to normal – and a suitable sign of hope this Easter.