The head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Mark Rowley, has announced that the Russian double-agent and his daugher were attacked with a “nerve agent” on Sunday. They are currently in critical condition in hospital. They were found slumped on a bench in the cathedral town of Salisbury in western England. A policeman who was first on the scene is also in hospital in a serious condition.
BBC News has reported that an ambulance, believed to be the one which took the pair to hospital, has been decontaminated by the fire brigade. They also reported that a woman was seen being escorted from the Zizi restaurant into an ambulance. The Zizi and a nearby pub have been closed “as a precaution”.
Mr Rowley would not confirm the exact substance identified.
He said: "Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms leading us to treat this as attempted murder, I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically."
He said there was no evidence of a widespread health risk to the public.
The use of a nerve agent rather than polonium suggests that the origin of the poison was being muddied, giving Putin a degree of “deniability”. Skripa’s son died in unclear circumstances in Russia. The attack on him has also led to the opposition calling for an inquiry into 14 other suspicious deaths in the UK.
Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has put renewed scrutiny on a string of deaths in the UK in the past two decades. The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper MP, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Tuesday calling for a review of 14 other cases.
Those cases were variously found to have been heart attacks, suicides, accidents, and deaths by natural causes, but some allege that they amount to a pattern of state-sponsored murder on British streets.