Perpetrators of Skripal attacks identified - British media
According to British media, police have identified several Russians they say were involved in the attack against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
British media say police believe Russians tried to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal, seen here in a file picture, and his daughter Yulia.
UK investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators behind a Novichok-type nerve agent attack on the Skripals the British Press Association reported on Thursday.
Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were struck down with a member of the Soviet-era class of nerve agents in March. The Skripals subsequently recovered.
The PA is reporting that British police have identified several Russians in the attempted murder of the Skripals and are looking for more than one suspect.
The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying: “Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. They [the investigators] are sure they [the suspects] are Russian.”
Death
In recent weeks, British counter-terrorism police have also been investigating the death of a woman on July 8, just over a week after being exposed to Novichok near the city of Salisbury.
Earlier this month, two Britons, a 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, fell critically ill after handling what police called a contaminated item near the site of the March attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died just over a week after she was exposed to Novichok near the city of Salisbury.
Sturgess' partner, 45-year-old Charlie Rowley from Amesbury, a town several kilometres from Salisbury, is now recovering in hospital.
Investigators do not believe that Sturgess and Rowley were specifically targeted, but had become accidental victims after they came into contact with a container that was used in the original attack on the Skripals.
The PA reports that Sturgess was exposed to at least 10 times the amount of nerve agent the Skripals came into contact with.
According to the report, the Novichok was found in a discarded perfume bottle that had been discovered by Sturgess and Rowley. Sturgess apparently sprayed the agent onto her skin.
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