LONDON — British police said they opened a murder investigation Sunday into the death of a woman who had been poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent.
The woman, 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess, died Sunday in a Salisbury hospital in western England, after collapsing just over a week ago on June 30.
Her death comes four months after the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Skripal, who had been living in Britain after a spy swap with Moscow, was poisoned along with his daughter in Salisbury by the same type of Soviet-developed nerve agent.
Britain blamed that earlier incident on Russia, an accusation Moscow denied, plunging relations between the two countries to the lowest point since the Cold War. Other Western countries backed Britain’s claim that Russia was responsible. The development is likely to heighten tensions between Britain and Russia a week before a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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