OFFICERS have released further details about the Novichok container found by Charlie Rowley.

They said during a search of Mr Rowley’s home address in Muggleton Road in July a small box labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour was recovered from a rubbish bag in the kitchen.

The next day a small glass bottle with a modified nozzle was found on a kitchen worktop. Tests undertaken at DSTL established the bottle contained a significant amount of Novichok.

Mr Rowley told police he found the bottle on June 27 in a charity bin.

Inside the box was a bottle and applicator. He tried to put the two parts together at his home address on Saturday, 30 June, and in doing so got some of the contents on himself. He said Dawn had applied some of the substance to her wrists before feeling unwell.

Police confirmed it was not a genuine Nina Ricci perfume bottle, box or nozzle. It is in fact a counterfeit box, bottle and nozzle that have been especially adapted.

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said anyone who has bought Nina Ricci perfume from a legitimate source should not be concerned, adding: “It is safe.”

AC Basu said today: “We have now linked the attack on the Skripals and the events in Amesbury which affected Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley. It now forms one investigation.

“We do not believe Dawn and Charlie were deliberately targeted, but became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of.

“We know that Novichok was applied to the Skripals’ front door in an area that is accessible to the public, which also endangered the lives of members of the public and emergency service responders.”