Nerve agent was novichok

Yulia Skripal: Poisoned A HIGH purity novichok nerve agent was used in the Salisbury attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, international experts confirmed yesterday.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons backed the original finding by British scientists – as Russia continued to deny responsibility.

The watchdog said it found the deadly poison, with ‘almost complete absence’ of impurities, in blood samples taken from the former Russian spy, his daughter and a third victim, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who fell seriously ill after attending the scene.

The OPCW did not identify the source of the poison but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the ‘conclusive’ finding that it was a Cold War-era Soviet toxin backed Britain’s assertion that Russia was behind the attack.