Third Litvinenko Contact Reportedly Poisoned

A third contact of the murdered Russian former spy, Alexander Litvinenko, has become sick with radiation poisoning, a local report said today.

Andrei Lugovoi, one of two Russian businessmen who met Mr Litvinenko in the London hotel bar where police now believe the former KGB agent received a massive dose of polonium-210, has suffered damage to his vital organs, Reuters cited the Interfax news agency as saying.

Dmitry Kovtun, who was also at the meeting in the pine bar of the Millennium hotel on November 1, is also in hospital with similar symptoms. Previous reports said he was in critical condition and had slipped into a coma, but his lawyer said today this was incorrect.

Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact of Mr Litvinenko, has undergone treatment in London for the effects of contamination.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced yesterday that seven staff members at the pine bar had been found with small amounts of polonium-210 in their bodies. Health officials want to test around 250 people who went into the bar around the time of the meeting, to see if they were also exposed to the toxic radioactive isotope.

Mr Litvinenko, who died on November 23, was buried in London's Highgate cemetery yesterday afternoon.

Reuters quoted Interfax as saying some of Mr Lugovoi's organs had been "affected by radiation nuclides".

"Lugovoi's condition is considerably better than that of Kovtun, but he also has symptoms of contamination," the agency added, saying the information came from Mr Lugovoi's medical notes.

With one person who was in the pine bar on the afternoon in question dead, two reported to be ill and seven more shown to be poisoned, detectives are convinced that this was the scene of the attack which was to claim Mr Litvinenko's life.

Mr Kovtun said last week that he and Mr Lugovoi drank tea and gin in the pine bar, but that he could not recall whether Mr Litvinenko had a drink or not.

Scientists assisting police said yesterday that the polonium could have been dissolved in a liquid before it was slipped to Mr Litvinenko. HPA officials said bar staff could have inhaled it when it evaporated while Mr Litvinenko was being poisoned. This could mean that anyone in the vicinity also inhaled the substance.

Dr Michael Clark, science spokesman for the HPA, said: "If it was some sort of liquid, it could have been - as in James Bond - a little magic capsule."

More test results disclosed by the HPA suggest that the polonium-210 may have been smuggled into the country as much as two weeks before Mr Litvinenko was poisoned. Traces of the material have also been found at the Parkes hotel. Mr Lugovoi was a guest there in mid-October and it was also where he met Mr Litvinenko.

The tests on the hotel, in Knightsbridge, were carried out last Monday but the HPA did not disclose the positive result until last night.

Shortly before he died, Mr Litvinenko blamed the Kremlin for the poisoning, something Russian authorities vehemently denied.

Among the many theories circulating about Mr Litvinenko's death is that it could have been the work of rogue elements in Russia's intelligence services.

Scotland Yard detectives are in Moscow to investigate a case prosecutors are now treating as suspected murder.

Despite Mr Lugovoi's reported illness, his lawyer said it was possible British detectives could interview him today.