China Daily (Hong Kong)

UK woman dies after exposure to Novichok

- By EARLE GALE in London earle@mail.chinadaily­uk.com

British police launched a murder inquiry on Sunday after a woman died following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok in southwest England.

Neil Basu, the assistant commission­er who leads the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism policing, said the death of 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess in hospital on Sunday was “shocking and tragic news”.

“Detectives will continue with their painstakin­g and meticulous work to gather all the available evidence so that we can understand how two citizens came to be exposed,” he told journalist­s.

Paramedics took Sturgess to hospital along with her 45-year-old partner, Charlie Rowley, after attending Rowley’s home in Amesbury, a town in Wiltshire that is only 13 kilometers from the scene of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former doubleagen­t. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by Novichok in Salisbury in March and recovered after three months of treatment.

The British government blamed Russia for the poisoning of the Skripals, a claim that Moscow has continuous­ly denied. Police suspect the would-be assassins dumped left-over nerve agent that Sturgess and Rowley came into contact with.

The Kremlin on Monday said it would be “absurd” to suggest Russia was involved in the death of the woman.

“We don’t know that Russia has been mentioned or associated with this,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Rowley remains critically ill in hospital. Investigat­ors are retracing the couple’s steps in search of the container they touched and six sites they visited have been cordoned off. Sky

We don’t know that Russia has been mentioned or associated with this.”

Dmitry Peskov,

News said the sites include Rowley’s home, a pharmacy, a church, and a park.

The investigat­ion is being led by the Counter-Terrorism Policing Network with the backing of 100 detectives from the Metropolit­an Police and officers from the local force.

Basu said the death “has only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsibl­e for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless, and barbaric act”.

The BBC said one of the first steps will be carrying out a post-mortem on the body of the mother of three.

Sky News said Christine Blanshard, medical director of Salisbury District Hospital, noted medics were saddened that they could not save Sturgess.

“Our staff are talented, dedicated and profession­al and I know today they will be hurting too,” she said. “They did everything they could.”

Prime Minister Theresa May has offered her condolence­s to Sturgess’s family and said the authoritie­s are “working urgently to establish the facts”, while Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the death “only strengthen­s our resolve to find out exactly what has happened”. The Associated Press said Javid will visit Amesbury and Salisbury to reassure residents they are not at risk.

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