Novichok poisoning breakthrough as original container found

Police have located the source of a fatal poisoning in the UK town of Amesbury, involving the same Novichok nerve agent used in the assassination attempt on a former Russian spy in nearby Salisbury earlier this year.

Tests at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory revealed a small bottle found in the house of one of the victims – Charlie Rowley – was contaminated with the nerve agent.

Investigators had been looking for a container handled by Rowley and his partner Dawn Sturgess who were both taken ill and rushed to hospital on 30 June. It was later established their symptoms were due to poisoning with a Novichok agent. Sturgess has since died and Rowley remains in intensive care.