Ex-spy poisoned at front door of home

LONDON: Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said.

After the first known use of a military-grade nerve agent on European soil since World War 2, Britain blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attempted assassination, and the West has expelled around 130 Russian diplomats.

Russia has denied using Novichok, a nerve agent first developed by the Soviet military, to attack Skripal.

“We believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door,” said Dean Haydon, Britain’s’ senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing.

“Specialists have identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to date, as being on the front door of the address,” Scotland Yard said.

British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the Kremlin had underestimated the Western response to the attack. “These expulsions represent a moment when a feeling has suddenly crystallised, when years of vexation and provocation have worn the collective patience to breaking point, and when across the world – across three continents – there are countries who are willing to say enough is enough,” he said.