Was toxin in air vent of spy’s car?
Sergei Skripal may have been exposed to a deadly nerve agent planted in his car’s air vents, US intelligence sources claimed last night.
The former russian spy and his daughter Yulia may have inhaled a ‘dusty’ form of the lethal Novichok toxin, they said. American officials claim they now had a ‘clearer picture’ of how the attack was carried out more than two weeks ago in Salisbury.
One senior figure told ABC News in the US the toxin was a ‘Cold War substance’ that the russian authorities ‘claimed never to have.’ Scotland Yard, which is leading the inquiry, refused to comment on the report. However, British authorities routinely share sensitive details of their inquiries with trusted international allies.
it also emerged that Yulia flew to Britain the day before the attack from Moscow where friends said her boyfriend was a russian secret service agent with whom she had a ‘stormy’ relationship.
Police have said Mr Skripal’s red BMW 320d saloon is at the centre of their investigation after discovering it was heavily contaminated with traces of nerve agent. Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who is leading the inquiry, has appealed for help identifying its last movements.
He admitted officers did not know where Mr Skripal and his daughter were for four crucial hours on the morning of the March 4 attack. They believed they travelled to a cemetery where the former double agent’s wife and son are buried, at 9.15am. But the car was not seen again until 1.30pm. Other theories about the poisoning include assassins using a deadly aerosol spray, sending a poison package or slipping the toxin into their food or drink. Wiltshire policeman Det Sgt Nick Bailey remains seriously ill in hospital after helping the Skripals.
ABC News also reported that up to 38 individuals in Salisbury have been identified as having been affected by the nerve agent. Officials said the full impact of the attack was still being assessed and more victims could yet be identified. Meanwhile, it was claimed Miss Skripal’s boyfriend was a russian secret service agent and she worked in the US embassy in Moscow. Friends said the 33- year- old was in a ‘stormy’ relationship with the mystery man who she rarely introduced to friends. russian newspaper Pravda said: ‘Her friends we managed to talk to say that they have only seen him in photographs.
‘A couple mentioned that he allegedly works for russian special services.’ Friends also told the newspaper that photographs of him and members of her family posted on social media had vanished recently.
Miss Skripal, a geography graduate, worked at a private school in Moscow before spending time at a Holiday inn hotel in Southampton. According to one online business profile, she then returned to the russian capital to work for PepsiCo russia and Nike.
Yesterday, a Sunday newspaper claimed her boyfriend’s mother was also a ‘ high ranked’ security service agent and could be responsible for the attack. A relative said: ‘it was done not against him, but against his daughter. She was with a young man but she had strained relations with his mother, at least this was how she told us. The mother didn’t accept her. The mother thought that if Yulia was the daughter of the traitor, then Yulia herself will betray.’