19 people who helped poisoned Russian ex-spy had to receive treatment

Police in Britain announced Thursday that 19 people who may have been exposed to the nerve agent used in an attack against a former Russian spy and his daughter have received medical treatment.

On Sunday, Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench near a mall in Salisbury. Kier Pritchard, the acting Wiltshire police chief, said one officer who went to help the victims, Sgt. Nick Bailey, is sick in the hospital, but is slowly making some progress. "Of course he's very anxious, very concerned," he told reporters. He said that other people who were at the scene have had blood tests and gone to the hospital, but would not say if they were police officers, medical workers, or bystanders, NBC News reports.

Both Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal remain in the hospital in critical condition, and authorities said they view their case as an attempted murder. Skripal was convicted in 2006 of spying for Britain, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but was freed in 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russia spy swap.

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