UK believes Putin personally authorised Salisbury novichok attack, inquiry told

Personnel in hazmat suits secure a tent covering a bench in Salisbury where Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found critically ill. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

The UK government believes that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, authorised the Salisbury novichok poisonings, which could have killed thousands of people, an inquiry has been told.

A senior Foreign Office (FCDO) official has given a statement to the inquiry spelling out that the British government has concluded the nerve agent attack was so sensitive that Putin himself must have given it the go-ahead.