Get email updates with the day's biggest stories Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice The suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack on Russian former spy Sergei Skripal have been identified by police, it has emerged. Several Russians are believed to have been involved in the attempted murder of the former double agent and daughter Yulia in Salisbury and are looking for more than one suspect. A source with knowledge of the investigation told the Press Association: "Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. "They (the investigators) are sure they (the suspects) are Russian." The news comes as an inquest is due to open on Thursday for Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died earlier this month, eight days after apparently coming into contact with Novichok from the same batch used in the attempted murder of the Skripals in March. (Image: AFP) (Image: PA) Her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, was left fighting for his life after also being contaminated by the chemical weapon. It is understood Ms Sturgess was exposed to at least 10 times the amount of nerve agent the Skripals came into contact with. Investigators are working to the theory that the substance was in a discarded perfume bottle found by the couple in a park or somewhere in Salisbury city centre and Ms Sturgess sprayed Novichok straight on to her skin, the source said. (Image: SWNS.com) Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Play now The Metropolitan Police, who are leading the investigation, declined to comment. The inquest will be opened by the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner in Salisbury and the hearing is expected to be adjourned to allow police inquiries to continue. On Wednesday, a fingertip search of Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury was carried out. The park and other locations in Salisbury and nearby Amesbury were cordoned off last month after the exposure of the couple to the nerve agent. Searches of properties could last months after 400 items were recovered, officers warned, while waste and litter will be removed as part of the sweep of public areas. The police probe in Queen Elizabeth Gardens continued as critically ill Charlie – Dawn’s partner – was revealed to be desperate to see her youngest daughter. Charlie, 45, was very close to 10-year-old Gracie. His brother Matthew, 47, said: “He told me he’s missing Gracie terribly." “He’s not very healthy. It’s still 50/50.” Grace, one of three children Dawn had in a previous relationship, is being looked after by her family in Durrington, Wiltshire. (Image: Getty) Matthew said he had spoken to Charlie in hospital and he “remembered that Dawn had sprayed the perfume on both her wrists”. He “vaguely recollects there being an odd ammonia-type smell,” said Matthew. Last week counter-terrorism detectives revealed they had found a small bottle containing Novichok at Mr Rowley's home in Muggleton Road, Amesbury. They are trying to establish where the container came from and how it came to be in his house. A team of international experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was called in to independently verify this. They have finished collecting samples which will now be analysed at two OPCW labs before the results are reported back to the UK. Public Health England said the risk to the public remains low but it continued to "strongly advise" not to pick up any unknown "strange items" such as syringes, needles, cosmetics or similar objects made of materials such as metal, plastic or glass. Police carried out fingertip searches in a child’s play area yesterday in connection with the Amesbury poisoning. (Image: PA) The park is where tragic Dawn is believed to have found what she thought was a discarded bottle of perfume. Wiltshire Police have been searching the closed park in central Salisbury because Dawn, 44, and Charlie visited the day before they fell ill. They had a couple of beers and relaxed in the sun with friends. Charlie would often search through the bins and bushes looking for items to sell, friends have said.<doc-sep>UK Security Minister Ben Wallace has dismissed claims police identified the suspects in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury as “wild speculation.” The Tory minister Tweeted, in response to the Press Association post, that the report "belongs in the ill informed and wild speculation folder." I think this story belongs in the “ill informed and wild speculation folder” — Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) July 19, 2018 It comes after the Press Association reported on Thursday morning that police had identified the suspects behind the nerve agent attacks against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The pair were found on March 4 slumped on a bench after being exposed to the substance in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury. Read more It was reported that a source with knowledge of the investigation said: “Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. They [the investigators] are sure they [the suspects] are Russian” The UK has accused Russia of both attacks, a claim which the Kremlin has consistently denied. Asked about the latest developments, Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said he is still awaiting official confirmation from Britain. “These are media reports, unfortunately there are no official statements from the British side. I want to hear from Scotland Yard, from the Foreign Office. Many versions [published] in the newspapers are not confirmed at official level,” Yakovenko told journalists in Moscow. The Russian envoy added that as London has produced no evidence that Moscow is responsible, the attack and its possible perpetrators was not discussed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump at their meeting in Helsinki. Read more Yakovenko added he will raise the issue with the new UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt when they meet. The report that police had identified the suspects came after Dawn Sturgess, 44, died on July 8 within days of her reported exposure to Novichok. She, along with her partner Charlie Rowley, who remains in a serious condition, was poisoned in Amesbury, a Wiltshire town just eight miles from Salisbury – where the Skripals were attacked. Wallace was among the first, along with Home Secretary Sajid Javid, to accuse Russia of culpability over the Amesbury incident. Speaking shortly after the attack on the couple in Amesbury, Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ program: “Based on the evidence we had at the time of the Skripal attack, the knowledge they [Russia] had developed Novichok, they had explored assassination programmes in the past, they had motive, form and stated policy, we would still assert to a very high assurance that the Russian state was behind the original attack.” DETAILS TO FOLLOW<doc-sep>British investigators have identified several Russians as the suspects in the attempted murder of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the Press Association has reported. Russian double agent Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in March. Both were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping centre. The Skripals recovered, but the people responsible have never been identified. The Press Association is quoting sources within that investigation that CCTV footage cross checked with people entering the UK had enabled them to identify several Russians as suspects. But former British intelligence officer Philip Ingram told ABC PM's Linda Mottram those responsible had likely left the country and even if their identities were known, there were unlikely to be any arrests. "It's almost certain they've gone … they will probably be entering and leaving under different identities. This is a very, very complex investigation," he said. "If they [British authorities] can identify the individuals they will put international arrest warrants out." And he said if they were Russian nationals it was unlikely anything could be done, because Moscow denied any involvement in the attack. "What realistically will happen? I don't think very much," he said. Mr Ingram said in the PM interview that the assassination attempt would have involved a team of up to six people. Investigators in hazmat suits work near where Sergei Skripal became critically ill. ( AP: Steve Parsons/PA Russia denies involvement amid blame "For a professional assassination attempt like this those are the sort of numbers you would have expected, because this would be an operation that would have gone on over a period of time, not just on that one day the Skripals' door was contaminated," he said. Britain has blamed Russia for the poisonings and identified the poison as Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. But Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack. Mr Skripal is a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was arrested in Moscow in 2004 after it was found he had been working as a double agent for the British government. The motive for attacking Mr Skripal, an aged Russian traitor who was exchanged in a Kremlin-approved spy swap in 2010, is unclear, as is the motive for using of an exotic nerve agent which has such overt links to Russia's Soviet past. But a Russian chemist who was involved with the development of the Novichok has said only the Russian Government could have carried out the attack. A British inquest also concluded that Russia had to be involved, and British Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Moscow before kicking out 23 Russian diplomats to the UK. Inquest opened into second case of Novichok poisoning Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were exposed to Novichok contained in a small bottle. ( Facebook A British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died this month after coming across a small perfume bottle containing Novichok near the city of Salisbury, where the Skripals were struck down. A coroner has opened an inquest into her death. Senior coroner David Ridley headed a brief hearing on Thursday, but said the cause of Ms Sturgess's death won't be given until further tests are completed. However, Mr Ridley said samples taken from both Ms Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley tested positive for Novichok at Britain's defence research labs. He said a post-mortem examination was carried out on Ms Sturgess on Tuesday, but did not provide details. Inquests are medical and legal hearings conducted in Britain in cases of unnatural, sudden or violent death. They do not apportion blame. He adjourned the proceedings until January to allow time for police inquiries to continue. Mr Rowley is still in hospital. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds 2 m 16 s What is nerve agent Novichok and how does it work? ( Girish Sawlani ) Reuters/ABC<doc-sep>Russian agents responsible for the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury sent a coded message to Moscow which included the phrase, "The package has been delivered", it was claimed last night. A British intelligence listening station based in Cyprus, allegedly picked up the message shortly after former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were attacked in March.<doc-sep>
Police believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the novichok attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, the Press Association has reported. But security minister Ben Wallace dismissed the report as "wild speculation" on Twitter. The 66-year-old and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were attacked with the deadly nerve agent at their home in Salisbury, Wiltshire. The pair were taken to hospital after shoppers found them collapsed on a bench at The Maltings shopping centre on 4 March. Both survived the attack and were discharged from Salisbury District Hospital after extensive treatment. Officers believe several Russians were involved in the attempted murder and say they are looking for more than one suspect. "Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time," a source close to the investigation told PA. They said investigators were "sure" the suspects were Russian. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player How does novichok affect the body? Scotland Yard, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment. Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "This would chime with the government's long-held belief that the Russian state was behind the attack on the Skripals, or at least had lost control of the nerve agent novichok which scientists say is made only in Russia." In an analysis of samples taken from the Skripals' home, the highest concentrations of the toxic chemical was found on door handles. The day before the pair were found unconscious by members of the public in Salisbury town centre, Mr Skripal was driven to Heathrow Airport by a friend to collect his daughter returning from the Russian capital, Moscow. Brunt said this left around a five-hour window for the attackers to visit their home to apply the nerve agent. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Russian spy's daughter on poisoning horror He said police officers had collected 5,000 hours of CCTV from the local area during the course of their enquiries. "Those images would have been matched with CCTV taken from Heathrow Airport and any other airport within a few days of the attack," said Brunt. "That gives you an insight into the kind of meticulous and complex work that has been going on. "It may be that through that work police have come to the conclusion that they have found people who were around the Skripals' home on 3 or 4 March and have been able to identify similar figures, or the same figures, getting on flights and perhaps going back to Russia." Image: Charlie Rowley (L) and Dawn Sturgess The breakthrough comes as an inquest was opened into the death of Dawn Sturgess. She and her partner Charlie Rowley, both from Amesbury which is situated about eight miles north of Salisbury, were poisoned by novichok believed to be from the same batch as that used to target the Skripals. Ms Sturgess, 44, died earlier this month - eight days after being exposed to 10 times the amount of nerve agent the former spy and his daughter came into contact with. Investigators believe the substance was in a discarded perfume bottle that the couple found in a park and that Ms Sturgess likely sprayed the substance directly onto her skin. Mr Rowley, 45, survived coming into contact with the chemical and is still being treated in hospital. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Are the Amesbury and Salisbury poisonings linked? David Ridley, senior coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, confirmed a small glass bottle of fluid was recovered by investigators and that tests showed it contained novichok. He said details of the cause of Ms Sturgess's death would not be disclosed until further tests had been carried out and adjourned the inquest until 16 January, 2019. More than 400 exhibits, samples and items have been recovered by police investigating the poisoning of the couple. A high police presence remains in Amesbury and Salisbury as searches of properties and a clean-up of public places continues. Image: Police officers earlier at Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury Public Health England has said the risk to the public remains low, but has advised people not to pick up any unknown items such as syringes, needles, cosmetics, or similar objects made of materials such as metal, plastic or glass. "The advice remains, 'if you didn't drop it, then don't pick it up'," it said.