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"We can confirm that the man and woman have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which has been identified as the same nerve agent that contaminated both Yulia and Sergei Skripal," said Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of London’s Metropolitan Police.
Local police declared the case a "major incident" Wednesday, four days after the man and woman were found collapsed at a residential building in Amesbury, eight miles (13 kilometers) from Salisbury, where the Skripals were poisoned.
Basu said it was not clear whether there was a link between the two cases, and whether the nerve agent came from the same batch that left the Skripals fighting for their lives.
"The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us," he said, amid speculation that the victims could have been sickened by residue from the poison used on the Skripals.
Basu said it was unclear whether the two were targeted, but there was "nothing in their background to suggest that at all."
Police said officers were initially called Saturday morning about a collapsed woman, then were summoned back in the evening after a man fell ill at the same property. Police at first thought the two, identified by friends as 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year-old Charlie Rowley, had taken a contaminated batch of heroin or crack.
Initially, the investigation was led by local police, but Basu said counterterrorism detectives were taking charge after the substance was identified as Novichok. He said 100 officers had been assigned to the case.
Sam Hobson, a friend of the couple, said he was with them on Saturday, when Sturgess fell ill first. He told Sky News she was "having a fit, foam coming out of her mouth." Rowley collapsed later the same day.
"He was sweating loads, dribbling. ... He was rocking backwards and forwards," Hobson said. "There was no response from him. He didn’t even know I was there."
Police cordoned off a home in Amesbury, believed to be Rowley’s, and other places the pair visited, including a church, a pharmacy and a park in Salisbury, near where the Skripals were found.