Radiation found after spy’s death

Police probing the death of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko have found above-normal levels of radiation at three locations in London.

Mr Litvinenko’s death has been linked to the presence of a “major dose” of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.

Scotland Yard confirmed traces were also found at his home, a sushi bar and a hotel, but the risk to others was said by health experts to be very low.

The Kremlin has denied UK citizen Mr Litvinenko’s claims it was involved.

The traces were found at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square, and at Mr Litvinenko’s home in Muswell Hill, north London, Scotland Yard said.

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Moscow has been asked to help British police in their investigations, the Foreign Office has said.

Officials discussed the issue with the Russian Ambassador, Yuri Fedotov, at a meeting this afternoon, said a spokeswoman.

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Professor Pat Troop from the HPA told a news conference that the tens of hospital staff who had come into contact with him would be monitored.

She said Mr Litvinenko would have had to either eaten, inhaled or been given the dose of polonium-210 through a wound.

She said the nature of death as an “unprecedented event in the UK”.

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Friends have said Mr Litvinenko was poisoned because of his criticism of Russia.

In a statement dictated before he died at University College Hospital on Thursday, the 43-year-old accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his death.

Mr Litvinenko had recently been investigating the murder of his friend, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of the Putin government.

Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated the Kremlin’s earlier dismissal of allegations of involvement in the poisoning as “sheer nonsense”.

Mr Putin himself has said Mr Litvinenko’s death was a tragedy, but he saw no “definitive proof” it was a “violent death”.

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