The former KGB spy killed by radioactive poison probably ingested the deadly dose after it was sprayed on his sushi in a busy London restaurant, police and security sources said yesterday.
Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist officers believe the death spray occurred in the Itsu restaurant in Piccadilly where on Nov. 1, outspoken Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko met with an Italian contact, The Sun of London reports.
“The most likely explanation is his food was sprayed at the sushi bar and the material got on his clothing and was carried on him to his next meeting at the hotel and on to his home,” one senior security source told the newspaper.
Another source said: “We think it was either a liquid spray or possibly a powder.”
British police are now combing through footage of security cameras at the restaurant, a hotel he visited later, and near his home for clues about the assassin.
“We will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr. Litvinenko’s movements at relevant times . . . There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV [closed-circuit television] footage,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said.
Cops also hope the security-camera footage will show where Litvinenko may have left behind traces of the poison.
Others may have been infected by traces of the radioactive polonium Litvinenko sweated away or secreted from his hands or clothing.
Britain’s Health Protection Agency is now offering to test the urine of people who were near any of these places on that day.
Litvinenko, 43, died Thursday night after a three-week illness that saw his hair fall out, his body waste away and his organs slowly fail.
In a statement released after his death, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of what would be the Kremlin’s first political assassination in the West since the Cold War. With Post Wire Services