The Associated Press
Jill Lawless
Danica Kirka
LONDON–Britain’s top domestic security official today described the attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter with a rare chemical agent as a “brazen and reckless act” that will be answered without hesitation when the facts become clear.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the House of Commons that enormous resources are being directed at trying to figure out who might be responsible for poisoning Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33.
The pair was found unconscious on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday, triggering a police investigation led by counter-terrorism detectives.
“The use of a nerve agent on British soil is a brazen and reckless act,” Rudd said. “This was attempted murder in the most cruel and public way.
“People are right to want to know who to hold to account,” she added.
“But if we are to be rigorous in this investigation, we must avoid speculation and allow the police to carry on their investigation.”
The Skripal case is reminiscent of the 2006 killing of another former Russian spy who was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210.
The banned VX nerve agent was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader last year in Malaysia.
Skripal and his daughter are in critical but stable condition, Rudd noted.
A police officer who came to their aid also is in a serious but stable condition, though he is not in intensive care.
Police have declined to speculate on who might be behind the attack.
The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attempted killing of Skripal, a former Russian agent who had served jail time in his homeland for spying for Britain before being freed in a spy swap.
But Rudd said the “government will act without hesitation as the facts become clearer.”
The rarity of the poisoning material drew attention to the potential of a state actor being involved.
Chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie, of research project CBW Events, said the highly-public murder attempt appeared to be “an expression of power” intended to send a message.
“There’s echoes of Litvinenko–you are doing it in a way that makes it obvious you’re doing it,” he noted.
Griffiths said that Russia was “obviously a clear candidate,” but it was too soon to say who was behind the attack.
“It’s also possible there could be some trouble-maker out there who wants to make it look like it was Russia,” he conceded.
Nerve agents are chemicals that disrupt the messages sent by the nerves to the body’s organs.
They can be administered in gas or liquid form, causing symptoms including vomiting, breathlessness, paralysis, and often death.
Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said there was a low risk to the public, but experts on the chemical said it was highly-dangerous and needed specialized care to process.
“Nerve agents are not materials that can be made at home,” stressed Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at University College, London.
“Their level of toxicity is such that they are only to be manufactured in specialized facilities.”
Authorities will be looking to find impurities and residues that might provide clues as to the precise chemical process used to manufacture the material, Sella added.
“There is no question that the authorities will be looking for the container used to deliver the material, as the chemical contents would be a gold mine,” she said.
“With this information, it might well be possible to trace the origin of the substance.”
Police and forensics officers are focusing on three sites in Salisbury–a medieval city known for its towering cathedral located 145 km southwest of London.
Rudd said the sites are Skripal’s home, a pub, and a restaurant.