World’s deadliest nerve gas: How ‘Novichok’ attacks your body

It’s easily spread, swift and very deadly. This is how the gas that poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter attacks your body.

WHEN it first enters your nervous system after you ingest it, inhale it or absorb it through your skin, the silent but very deadly nerve agent Novichok will first cause a constriction of the pupil of your eyes.

You will see bright-coloured shapes before them, then a ringing sound will pound in your head, you will start foaming at the mouth and fear will take hold.

Described as the “deadliest ever” chemical agent on earth, Novichok will be rapidly advancing on your central nervous system.

Colourless and mostly odourless, Novichok in either a gas, aerosol, powder or liquid was administered to former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, near Maltings Shopping Centre in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.

It was described as a “brazen and reckless” attempt to murder the 66-year-old who moved to Britain in 2010 as part of a post-Cold War spy swap.

Skirpal and his daughter were found on a park bench outside the shopping centre.

The pair, along with a policeman who investigated the incident, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, remain in hospital.

Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a park bench after the nerve gas attack.

Suited-up officers collect evidence outside the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury where the deadly nerve gas attack took place. Picture: Salisbury Journal/Solent News.

Police tent at The Maltings shopping centre two days after the nerve gas attack. Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe.

Even if the Skripals survive the believed attempted assassination via the deadly substance, their minds and bodies may be irreparably destroyed.

Novichok, which is up to eight times more powerful than VX gas, which in turn is ten times more poisonous than deadly Sarin gas, is formulated to resist standard nerve agent treatments.

Meaning “newcomer” in Russian and developed to be viciously lethal and undetectable, Novichok will begin to act on muscles and respiration within minutes.

The nerve agent will begin to disable the body’s “off switch for glands and muscles” and disrupt the transmission of nerve impulses.

The victim will experience excessive salivation, tears pouring from the eyes, nausea, vomiting and possible loss of control of the bladder and bowels.

The person may begin to convulse and their lungs may fill with liquid, causing breathing problems.

In extreme doses, this will lead to respiratory failure unless a doctor intervenes.

The eyes will now be pinprick size and the person will then go into muscle spasm and lose consciousness.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey is in a stable and conscious condition after coming into contact with the nerve gas. Picture: Wiltshire Police.

Firefighters and police near the shopping centre after the nerve gas attack. Picture: Salisbury Journal/Solent News.

Yulia Skripal lived with her father in England.

Sergei Skripal went to the UK in post-Cold War spy swap.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IF POISONED WITH NERVE GAS

When a passer-by spotted Sergei and Yulia Skripal collapsed on the bench, with the father making strange movements with his hand, it is as well the person did not touch them.

It is unclear whether Sergeant Bailey became seriously ill as a result of attending to the sick pair on the bench, or visiting the Skripals’ house.

Following the attack, the Salisbury District Hospital was forced to shut down and decontaminate its accident and emergency department after the Skripals’ admission.

There is an antidote to Novichok, but it depends how readily available it would be to a member of the public who fell victim, and how quickly administered.
Any person who suffers a rapid collapse and the aforementioned symptoms, should go immediately to hospital.

But even getting your hands swiftly on the antidote may not help.

In 1987, Russian military chemist Andrei Zheleznyakov was testing Novichok while developing it in secret in a laboratory when a pipe broke.

CCTV of Skripal at a store four days before the deadly nerve gas attack.

Police erect a screen outside a vehicle recovery business in Salisbury after the attack. Picture: Matt Dunham.

What happened next was revealed by David E Hoffman in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy.

Zheleznyakov sealed the pipe, but it was too late, the Independent reported.

“I saw rings before my eyes — red, orange,” he later told an intermediary.

“Bells were ringing inside my head. I choked. Add to this the feeling of fear — as if something was about to happen at any moment.”

Injected with an antidote, he began to feel better but escorted on his walk home he saw Saint Basil’s Cathedral, in Moscow’s Red Square, “lighting up and falling apart”.

Zheleznyakov spent 18 days in intensive care, but never fully recovered.

For the next five years before his early death, pensioned off, he suffered chronic weakness in his arms, toxic hepatitis, epilepsy, severe depression and an inability to concentrate.

British police are investigating who may have administered the poison to Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Reports say a person wearing a black mask was seen near the shopping centre before the attack.

Asked about the poisoning on Tuesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly smirked about the incident.

Sergeant Bailey is in a stable and conscious condition in hospital.