By: John Wimperis, local democracy reporter: Local leaders in Bath have thanked emergency services and responders for rushing to help in an incident with a suspected noxious substance in the city on Monday, despite not knowing what they were would be facing.
A major response from the ambulance, police, and fire and rescue services attended the incident in Bath city centre where people felt ill after being approached by a woman with a plastic bag. A cordon was around the area on Stall Street, which was lifted shortly before 8pm after the area was checked and no trace of chemical or hazardous substances was found.
One woman was taken to hospital over breathing difficulties and itchy eyes and later discharged. A 73-year-old was arrested on suspicion of administering an unknown noxious substance.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday morning, Bath MP Wera Hobhouse said: “Thank you to the emergency services for responding and reassuring the public so diligently.”
Bath and North East Somerset Council leader Kevin Guy said: “As council leader, I take the issue of the safety of those who live, work and visit our area as top priority. When an incident such as this occurs, the multi-agency approach swings into action, and I can not thank the emergency services enough for their quick response.
“The organisations whose training and plans were immediately implemented professionally, swiftly and without causing panic, and the actual individuals in those organisations who rushed to help without at the time knowing what they were going to be dealing with. As a council, our investment in emergency response paid off, and the incident was handled supremely well.”
He added: “It’s a shame that some try to use an event like this to score points. Sadly, we do have to prepare as best we can for any and all types of incident, using a very wide range of interventions to protect against different forms of attack. Far from showing that we have failed in our duty to protect, the reaction showed how prepared we are.”
The ambulance service were called to Bath at 2.30pm on Monday after reports that a woman with a plastic bag had approached members of the public who then fell ill. The ambulance service contacted Avon and Somerset Police at 3.08pm and a cordon was set up to allow emergency services to respond and keep the wider public safe.
Chief Inspector Scott Hill of the Bath Neighbourhood Policing Team thanked the public for their “patience and understanding” while emergency services dealt with the incident. He said: “Public safety is always our top priority and we implemented well-rehearsed plans to ensure this isolated incident was dealt with as swiftly and effectively as possible. All emergency services have a duty of care to their staff and so a decision was made to wear protective clothing while there was uncertainty about what we were dealing with.
“Further enquiries will be required to fully understand what caused some people to experience feeling unwell, but to help us progress that work we have made an arrest as we seek to establish whether any offence has been committed.
“We can confirm thorough testing of the surrounding public area was carried out before the cordon was lifted which confirmed there were no traces of any chemical substance.”
He added that police were not aware of “any increased risk to the public.” Police officers remained on patrol in Bath on Tuesday to allow members of the public to speak to them about any concerns.
It was initially stated by the ambulance service that two people had been taken to hospital, but ultimately only one person needed to be. Police carried out CCTV enquiries to identify the individual who had been in possession of the bag at the time of the incident.
The BBC reported that a 73-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of administering an unknown noxious substance.
Anyone with information that could help police inquiries is asked to contact Avon and Somerset Police through their online form or by calling 101 and quoting reference number 5224197741.
You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. You will not need to provide your name and you will not need to go to court.