UK policeman cleared of novichok

A police officer involved in the search for the nerve agent that poisoned four people has been cleared of suspected poisoning.

Emergency workers at the weekend search John Baker House, the hostel where novichok victim Dawn Sturgess lived. Picture: Getty Images

British authorities are conducting extensive forensic tests looking for the source of a nerve agent that sickened two people thought to have handled a contaminated item from the March attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter.

A police officer also underwent a precautionary test at a hospital to check for possible contamination related to the case, but Wiltshire Police said yesterday that he had been cleared.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45 were poisoned nine days ago and are in critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital, which is also where Sergei and Yulia Skripal spent months being treated after they were poisoned. All four were sickened by novichok, a nerve agent weapon developed by the Soviet Union.

Police think Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley, a heroin addict, picked up the syringe used in the March 4 attack on the Skripals.

Officials have said the search could take weeks or months.

It has brought more than 100 officers to Salisbury and the nearby village of Amesbury as suspect sites are condoned off to protect the public from possible contamination.

The police officer given the all clear underwent “appropriate specialist tests,” the Salisbury hospital said. “We would like to reiterate the advice from Public Health England that the risk to the wider public remains low,” the hospital said.

AP