UK: Woman dies following exposure to deadly nerve agent

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON

A woman who was exposed to the nerve agent novichok last week in Amesbury, Wiltshire county has died in hospital.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill on June 30 after handling an item contaminated with the nerve agent novichok and was taken to hospital.

Her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the nerve agent and remains in a critical condition in hospital.

The Metropolitan Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of Sturgess to find out who could be behind the latest chemical attack.

“Detectives have launched a murder inquiry after a woman who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire, died in hospital this evening, Sunday,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on its website.

"This is shocking and tragic news. Dawn leaves behind her family, including three children, and our thoughts and prayers are with them at this extremely difficult time," said Neil Basu, the head of the U.K. Counter Terrorism Policing.

"This terrible news has only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless and barbaric act," Basu added.

Home secretary, Sajid Javid, has pointed the finger to Russia of being behind the latest attack, accusing it of using the U.K. as a “dumping ground”, according to the BBC News.

The latest attack comes four months after the poisoning of former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, in the city of Salisbury, 7 miles from Amesbury, in March of this year.

The Skripals survived the chemical attack but the British government accused the Russian government of being behind the attack and imposed sanctions on the country as well as kicking out many of its diplomats.