UK woman dies after exposure to Novichok

British police launched a murder inquiry on Sunday after a woman died following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok in southwest England.

Neil Basu, the assistant commissioner who leads the United Kingdom's counter-terrorism policing, said the death of 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess in hospital on Sunday was "shocking and tragic news".

"Detectives will continue with their painstaking and meticulous work to gather all the available evidence so that we can understand how two citizens came to be exposed," he told journalists.