A British terror boss feared Russia had carried out an act of war against the UK.
The infamous Salisbury poisoning incident left the UK and the international community reeling. It centred around the presence of lethal nerve agent Novichok and claimed the life of Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was exposed to the deadly chemical inadvertently.
The 2018 incident also saw the former Russian spy and his daughter Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia exposed to the nerve agent. Now, the leader of the counter-terrorism investigation surrounding the incident, Neil Basu, has revealed what was going through his mind when the news first broke.
READ MORE:Baba Vanga predicted ‘exact date humanity will end’ – 2025 is ‘start of it all’
Click here for the latest headlines from the Daily Star
Speaking on the BBC’s Salisbury Poisonings Podcast, he said the illness of the Skripals left the entire counter-terror operation on high alert.
(Image: METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Gett)
“One of the things I was thinking was, is this war,” he explained. “You know, is this an act of war?
“You think of a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ as being an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear tipped warhead.
“You don’t think of it being in a perfume tester bottle. We didn’t know what we were looking for.”
During the podcast, he also explained that the process of telling people what had happened was the “true horror” of the operation.
(Image: METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Gett)
“To leave that lying around anywhere on foreign soil is the most unbelievably reckless disregard for human life I’ve ever witnessed.”
Dawn is believed to have come into contact with the Novichok around four months after the Skripals when she was gifted a perfume bottle containing the substance. Meanwhile, the chemical was detected on the door handle of the Skripal’s home.
Two Russian men were named as suspects in the investigation, something both they and the Russian government vehemently deny.
No one has ever been arrested for the murder of Dawn. It has since been heard that the perfume bottle given to her contained enough of the nerve agent to kill thousands of people.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.