Counter-terrorism police chief says 250 officers were sent to Salisbury to investigate poisoning of former Russian spy

A counter terrorism police chief has described how hundreds of investigators and scientists painstakingly worked to trace “ground zero” – the spot where the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met police’s counter terrorism command, told an inquiry into the novichok poisonings that a restaurant, pub and a car were suspected before the door handle of his home was pinpointed as the source of the poisoning almost two weeks after the Skripals fell ill.