Nerve agent victim released from UK hospital after poisoning

britain-poisoning-probe

Police conduct fingertip searches of Queen Elizabeth Gardens, in Salisbury, which British woman Dawn Sturgess visited before she fell ill after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok, Thursday, July 19, 2018. Senior coroner David Ridley opened an inquest into the poisoning death of Sturgess Thursday, but said the cause of Sturgess' death won't be given until further tests are completed. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

britain-poisoning-probe

LONDON (AP) — U.K. officials say nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley has been released from the hospital.

Lorna Wilkinson, the director of nursing at Salisbury District Hospital, said Friday that Rowley, 45, has been discharged.

Officials say Rowley and his partner Dawn Sturgess fell ill June 30 after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok when they handled a container thought to have been used in the March nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter. Sturgess, 44, died in the hospital on July 8.

Novichok was produced by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Britain has blamed Russia for poisoning the spy and his daughter, who both recovered, as well as accidently poisoning the two other Britons. Russia has denied the charges. The poisoning of the spy ignited a diplomatic scrum in which hundreds of envoys were expelled from Russia and Western nations.