Spy saga: UK calls emergency meeting
London, March 10: Britain was to hold a second meeting of its national emergencies committee on Saturday in response to a nerve agent attack on a Russian former spy.
Home secretary Amber Rudd was to chair the meeting of the committee, known as COBRA, at 1500 GMT to receive updates on the police case, the government said.
The March 4 attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southwest England, is being treated as attempted murder.
Around 180 troops, including chemical warfare experts, have been deployed in the city after investigators requested specialist assistance.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said Britain will react with the appropriate response if a state was found to be behind the murder attempt.
Authorities are racing to determine the source of the nerve agent used against Skripal, who came to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap.
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been pointing the finger at Moscow.
Security Minister Ben Wallace told BBC radio on Saturday that the government stood ready to respond “with the full force of the UK’s resources”.
He added that the attack was “a very serious incident with horrendous outcomes”.
“Someone has come onto our soil... has recklessly, brazenly, committed what looks like a very nasty crime, with a nerve agent prohibited, by most international laws... and has potentially put lots of people at risk,” he said.
May was “expected to announce sanctions” against Russia “as soon as Monday”, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The Times newspaper said British officials were talking to their US and European counterparts about a co- ordinated retaliation, which could include “diplomatic, economic and military measures” if Moscow was behind the attack.