Salisbury’s Zizzi restaurant to reopen eight months after novichok attack on Skripals

Branch of Italian chain given clean bill of health after military cleanup

The restaurant will reopen tomorrow with an event allowing diners to pay what they want for their meals. All money raised will be donated to the Rose Gale Trust and Children’s Chance charities (PA)

The Salisbury branch of Zizzi is preparing to reopen eight months after it was shut down in the wake of the novichok poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

Back in March traces of the nerve agent were found in the Italian restaurant, where the pair had eaten before falling ill.

The eaterie, in the town centre, was closed and cordoned off. But despite the negative publicity, Zizzi said it never considered quitting the premises altogether.

Phil Boyd, Zizzi operations director, said: “We’re excited that Zizzi is reopening to the people of Salisbury and we’re looking forward to welcoming customers back to enjoy the new-look restaurant and our new autumn menu.

“It’s been a difficult few months for the city, so we wanted to take this opportunity to show our support for this brilliant community.”

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs declared the restaurant safe after military teams carried out a cleanup.

The restaurant will reopen tomorrow with an event allowing diners to pay what they want for their meals. All money raised will be donated to the Rose Gale Trust and Children’s Chance charities.

Staff have been offered counselling in the wake of the attack, Mr Boyd said.

“We have retained them on full pay, we have had regular contact with them, we sent a small support team down to the restaurant to make sure that they were well looked after,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“Our priority was initially to make sure that everyone was feeling well and once we knew that all of our team were fit and healthy we made counselling available to them.”

Alistair Cunningham, chair of the South Wiltshire Recovery Coordinating Group, said the reopening was a “significant step forward” and showed that the city centre had moved on.

Russian military intelligence agents Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov have since been charged with conspiracy to murder the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.

Mr Petrov and Mr Boshirov gave a television interview in which they claimed to have been tourists interested in seeing the city’s cathedral.

British authorities believe the pair smeared the highly toxic chemical on Mr Skripal’s door handle. Along with his daughter, he became critically ill after he was exposed to the nerve agent.

Three months later Dawn Sturgess died after she was poisoned by a perfume bottle containing traces of novichok in nearby Amesbury.