Britain to expel 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning

Britain will expel 23 Russian over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday.

"Under the Vienna Convention, the United Kingdom will now expel 23 Russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers," May told parliament. "They have just one week to leave."

May said the biggest expulsions from London in 30 years would degrade Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years to come.

"The Russian state was culpable of the attempted murder" of spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia," May said.

A Russian ex-spy and his daughter fighting for their lives in an English hospital were attacked with a nerve agent in a targeted murder attempt, British police had said.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in the southwest England city of Salisbury on March, triggering a police investigation led by counterterrorism detectives.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)