U.K. police: Former Russian spy targeted with nerve agent

A former Russian spy who fell ill Sunday in England is suffering from nerve agent poisoning, British counter terror officials confirmed Wednesday. Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in critical condition in Salisbury after collapsing on a public park bench. The police officer who first arrived on the scene to assist the pair also has been hospitalized in serious condition. Police are investigating the incident as an attempted murder. In 2006, Russian officials charged Skripal, a retired military intelligence officer, with revealing to Britain’s MI6 the identities of Russian agents working undercover in Europe. He spent four years in jail before Moscow agreed to free him as part of a prisoner swap with the FBI. Although he denied working with the British Secret Intelligence Service, Skripal settled in England in 2010. He is not the first former Russian spy targeted while living in the U.K. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko died in London after drinking tea laced with a radioactive substance. A public inquiry concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin likely approved Litvinenko’s assassination. Russian officials have denied any involvement in the Skripal case.