Russian embassy says UK has not made extradition requests in nerve agent case

The Russian Embassy in Britain said on Monday it had not received an official request from London to extradite two men it suspects of carrying out a nerve agent attack on British soil, TASS news agency said, citing an embassy statement.

"We do not trust such unverified bogus media reports at all," the embassy said. The Guardian newspaper earlier on Monday was about to make such a request. (Reporting by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Those behind nerve agent poisonings in England have not been identified and police cannot guarantee there are no more traces of Novichok still in England, Britain's top counter-terrorism policeman had said earlier.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in March, and two Britons fell ill in July month after exposure to the same nerve agent. One those, Dawn Sturgess, has died, while the other is critical but conscious.

"I would love to be able to stand here and say how we have identified and caught those responsible and how we are absolutely certain there are no traces of nerve agent left anywhere in the county," Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said in a statement.

"The brutal reality, however, is that I cannot offer you any such assurances or guarantees at this time."

He added that it may never be possible to definitively establish a link between the death of Sturgess and the poisoning of the Skripals.REUTERSONLINE-NEWS

Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "appalled and shocked" by the death of Sturgess. "Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being investigated as a murder," she said.

She offered her condolences to the relatives and loved ones of Sturgess, 44, who had three children. She became ill alongside a man named locally as Charlie Rowley, 45.