LONDON, July 15. /TASS/. UK Metropolitan Police investigators have gathered over 400 pieces of evidence related to the Amesbury incident, the counter terrorism unit of the UK police said in a statement on Saturday.
"To date, more than 400 exhibits have been recovered as part of the Amesbury investigation, of which a significant number are potentially contaminated and have been submitted to DSTL labs for analysis. This includes the small bottle, which was recovered from the address in Muggleton Road and which detectives now believe to be source of the contamination of Charlie and Dawn," the statement reads.
"Work is ongoing to establish whether the nerve agent is from the same batch as used in the attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March, and this remains a main line of enquiry for the investigation team," the UK police said.
Amesbury incident
On June 30, Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charles Rowley, 45, were hospitalized in critical condition in the British town of Amesbury, Wiltshire County. Sturgess died in hospital on July 8, while Rowley, who had been in critical condition, regained consciousness and was questioned by the police.
The Metropolitan Police claimed later that the two had been exposed to Novichok, the same nerve agent that was allegedly used in the March attack on former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in neighboring Salisbury. Back then, London rushed to accuse Moscow of being behind the attack. Russia has been categorically denying its involvement ever since.
On Friday, the Metropolitan Police said that a bottle containing the Novichok nerve agent was found in Rowley’s home. Immediately afterwards, the Foreign Office said that OPCW experts would arrive in the UK the next week at London’s request to identify the toxic chemical, which had been found in Amesbury.