'Minuscule' quantity of Salisbury novichok was enough to kill, inquiry hears

A "minuscule" amount of the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal - as small as a sixth of a grain of salt - could have been enough to prove fatal, a government scientist has told an inquiry.

- Steven Morris

The scientist, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, said "many lethal doses" of novichok were daubed on the handle of the former Russian spy's front door in Salisbury and it was so pure that it must have been manufactured by a sophisticated laboratory.

The public were not allowed into the hearing room for the evidence from the scientist, who can be identified only by the cipher MK26. An order is in place banning even their gender from being reported.