UK police identify Novichok suspects

British police believe that they have identified the suspects who carried out the Novichok nerve agent attack on a former Moscow double agent and his daughter and that they are Russian, the British domestic news agency Press Association (PA) reported Thursday.

“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,” a source with knowledge of the investigation told PA.

“They [investigators] are sure they [suspects] are Russian,” the source added.

Scotland Yard police headquarters refused to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on March 4 after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. Both have since recovered.

Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning of Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was jailed for betraying Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service. He left Russia for England in a 2010 spy swap. Russia has strongly denied involvement in the Skripal attack, sparking a diplomatic row that has led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Britain and its allies and Moscow.

Two Britons fell ill in June after being exposed to Novichok. Experts are investigating whether the toxin was also used against the Skripals.

Charlie Rowley, 45, and his 44-year-old partner Dawn Sturgess, collapsed at his house in Amesbury, a town close to Salisbury, within hours of each other on June 30.

Sturgess died on July 8, while Rowley has is in stable condition. The Sturgess death is being investigated as murder.