The world’s chemical weapons watchdog has confirmed that the nerve agent that killed a British woman in July was the same used against former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
44-year-old Dawn Sturgess died at Salisbury District Hospital just over a week after falling ill at her partner's home.
Her partner, Charlie Rowley, was also hospitalised.
UK police later confirmed that the pair were exposed to the nerve agent novichok – the same Soviet-era substance used in the Skripal attack.
#OPCW issues report on Technical Assistance requested by the United Kingdom regarding toxic chemical incident in #Amesbury #UK https://t.co/lLH8C1EreB pic.twitter.com/8lFwhUiiWx
— OPCW (@OPCW) September 4, 2018
This afternoon the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the UK findings.
In a statement, it said samples collected by OPCW inspectors “displays the same toxic properties of a nerve agent.”
“It is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Mr Sergei Skripal, Ms Yulia Skripal, and Mr Nicholas Bailey on March 4th 2018 in Salisbury,” it said.
It emerged in the weeks after her death that Mr Rowley found the nerve agent in a branded and sealed bottle that he believed contained perfume.
He said Ms Sturgess sprayed it on her wrists after he gave it to her as a present.
Britain has blamed Russia for the attack on the Skripals, but the Kremlin denies the allegation.
The UK chemical weapons research facility has confirmed that novichok was the substance used, however it cannot tell where it was manufactured.
Novichok is a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia from the 1970s onward, however the country’s president Vladimir Putin has warned that it could be produced in up to 20 countries.
