Hit squad put bystanders at risk with deadly nerve agent
THE hit squad that targeted Sergei Skripal put dozens of bystanders, including children, at risk by placing nerve agent on the front door of the former Russian spy’s home close to a children’s playground, it has emerged.
NHS officials are understood to be monitoring several people who may have come into contact with the Novichok agent, for signs of health problems. They are thought to include neighbours, postal staff, the first uniformed officers to arrive at the scene and reporters who approached the house after news of the attack broke.
Yesterday afternoon, police began to search a children’s play area yards from Col Skripal’s Salisbury home, suggesting that they fear it may contain traces of nerve agent – either from the Skripals themselves or by the would-be assassins leaving a trail as they made their escape.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said: “I would like to reassure residents that we have placed the cordons around the park, and officers will be searching it, as a precautionary measure. I would like to reiterate Public Health England’s advice that the risk to the public is low.”
Police disclosed on Thursday night that the “highest concentration” of the nerve agent that poisoned Col Skripal and his daughter Yulia was found on his front door.
Det Sgt Nick Bailey, who was in hospital for several days, is thought to have become ill after travelling to the house directly from the spot where Col Skripal and his daughter collapsed near the Maltings shopping centre at around 4.15pm on Sunday, March 4.
Scotland Yard said: “As a result of detailed forensic and scientific examination, detectives believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent at their home address.
Specialists have identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to date, as being on the front door of the address.”
Traces of the nerve agent have been found at some of the other scenes detectives have been working at over the past few weeks – including the Zizzi restaurant and The Mill pub visited by the pair – but at lower concentrations
‘They were hoping that they would get away scot-free because we wouldn’t identify it’
to those found at their house. At a public meeting two weeks ago, Paul Mills, the deputy chief constable of Wiltshire Police, revealed that 131 people could have potentially come into contact with the deadly nerve agent, and that they were being monitored by health authorities over the phone on a daily basis.
There are now fears several other people may have had access to the front door in the time between the attack and the house being sealed off by police the next day.
Tom Symonds, a BBC news reporter who was among the first media to arrive at the house, wrote on Twitter: “Myself and two BBC colleagues were first reporters at Sergei Skripal’s door on Monday afternoon. No cordon, just a police car. Thankfully I decided not to knock but I did ask the officer sitting in the car if there were any health risks I should be aware of. Didn’t get answer!”
It is feared the method used by the suspected Russian hit squad to target Col Skripal gave the would-be assassins the opportunity to flee the country within hours of launching the attack.
By smearing the front door with nerve agent any time from the Saturday night onwards, they would have had enough time to travel to Heathrow or Gatwick Airports and fly out of Britain before the Skripals collapsed after succumbing to the poison.
David Videcette, a former counterterrorism officer who investigating the 7/7 London bombings, said: “If the assumption that someone has put something on the front door is right, and it’s not cross-contamination, there is a way for someone to escape without being seen down an alleyway along the side of the house that doesn’t appear to be covered by CCTV.”
Hamish de Bretton-gordon, a former head of the military’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, said the application of the nerve agent could only have been done by well trained operatives.
He said: “There are probably one or two people involved in putting it there. Novichok agents have the ability to delay their reaction. They were hoping to be well gone before anything was discovered and they were hoping that they would get away scot-free because we wouldn’t identify it.”
The suspects are also likely to have used careful planning and tradecraft to cover their tracks. Mr de Bretton-gordon said: “Once again, it points towards the FSB [successor to the KGB].”