UK cops suspect former KGB spy was poisoned
■ Ex- KGB spy and his daughter found unconscious
London, March 6: Ex- KGB spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were in critical condition after being exposed to an “unknown substance” in the English town of Salisbury, prompting British counter- terrorism officers to launch a probe into the circumstances of the mysterious incident.
Skripal, 66, and his 33year- old daughter Yulia, were found unconscious on a shopping centre bench in Salisbury in south- west England and are feared to have been poisoned with an “unknown substance”, police said on Tuesday.
They remain critically ill in hospital since they were discovered in the Wiltshire town on Sunday afternoon.
Russia has denied any information about what has been classified as a “major incident” by Wiltshire Police.
Skripal’s mysterious illness has invited comparisons with the poisoning
in London in 2006 of another Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko. The former KGB agent had been poisoned with the radioactive substance
polonium- 210 at a central London hotel.
Police are looking for similarities between the cases and the modus operandi used, the Independent reported.
The UK will respond “robustly” to any evidence of Russian involvement in the collapse of former spy Skripal, foreign secretary Boris Johnson warned today.
“While it would be wrong to prejudge the investigation, I can reassure the House that should evidence emerge that implies state responsibility, then Her Majesty’s Government will respond appropriately and robustly,” Mr Johnson said in the House of Commons in response to an urgent parliamentary question over the incident.
Wiltshire Police said the pair did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital.
“They are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. Both remain in a critical condition in intensive care,” the police said in a statement.
A “small number” of emergency services workers were also assessed immediately after the incident and one remains in hospital.
“The advice from Public Health England remains that, based on the evidence to date, currently there doesn’t appear to be any immediate risk to public health,”
Wiltshire Police said, adding that it has increased police patrols in the city to reassure the public.
Former agent Skripal, whose wife, son and older brother have all died in the past two years, was granted refuge in the UK following a “spy swap” in 2010.
The latest incident sparked instant speculation of Russian- linked poisoning, given Sergei’s past as a former double agent who passed Russian secrets to Britain’s MI6 security services.
“We have to be alive to the fact of state threats,” said Scotland Yard counterterror chief Mark Rowley.
The former Russian colonel in military intelligence had been jailed in Russia for “high treason” in 2006 but was later given refuge in the UK as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 in exchange for UK- based Russian spy Anna Chapman and around 10 other so- called undercover "sleeper" agents.