Troops clear up nerve agent
TROOPS are being sent to assist police investigating the nerve agent poisoning of double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Counter-terrorism police asked for military assistance to remove vehicles and objects from the attack scene in a city centre, much of which has been cordoned off over contamination fears.
Around 180 troops, including Royal Marines, RAF and chemical specialists, are understood to have been deployed.
It came as police sources suggested former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned at his home.
Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, remain in a critical, but stable, condition in intensive care after being exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has said all the evidence points to the nerve agent attack being ordered by the Kremlin.
Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police said the military units had been called in because they had “the necessary capability and expertise”.
A spokesman said: “The public should not be alarmed and the public health advice remains the same.
“Military assistance will continue as necessary during this investigation.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has visited the city centre and the hospital where Mr Skripal and Yulia remain after they were targeted in an “outrageous” chemical attack.
Ms Rudd said the pair are in a “very serious” condition five days after they were discovered slumped on a bench in the city.
Counter-terrorism police launched an attempted murder inquiry after Mr Skripal and his daughter were exposed to a nerve agent.
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial response by authorities, is also in hospital.
Lord Blair, former Met Commissioner, suggested that the detective had attended Mr Skripal’s home.
He said: “There obviously are some indications the officer, and I’m very sorry that he has been injured, has actually been to the house, whereas there was a doctor who looked after the patients in the open who hasn’t been affected at all.
“So there may be some clues floating around in here.”
The nerve agent used in the attack was identified in scientific tests by Government experts earlier this week but it has yet to be named publicly.
Ms Rudd declined to reveal any further details about the substance, how it was deployed, or who is suspected of carrying out the poisoning.
The circumstances of the attack, and its echoes of the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, have prompted questions over the Government’s response if the evidence points to a state-sponsored assassination plot.
Police said several people had been seen for medical treatment since the incident.
On Thursday, officers sealed off the gravestone of Mr Skripal’s wife Liudmila, who was buried in 2012, and the memorial stone of his son Alexander, who was cremated last year, as the trail of evidence grew.
On Thursday night, a witness said police had been searching a car at a vehicle recovery centre close to the Russian victim’s home earlier that day.
He described seeing around 10 people in hazmat suits looking at the vehicle, which was said to be a Mercedes people carrier.
Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, which comes seven years after Mr Skripal was released from the country as part of a spy swap with the US.
He was convicted in his home country in 2006 for passing state secrets to MI6.
Military assistance will continue as necessary