iStock/Thinkstock(SALISBURY, England) — The police officer who was injured when responding to a poisoned former Russian spy earlier this month had been discharged from the hospital, U.K. authorities said.
Detective Sgt. Nick Bailey was hospitalized for several weeks in connection with the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter. Hospital officials and police announced Bailey’s release Thursday afternoon in Salisbury, England.
“People ask me how I am feeling — but there are really no words to explain how I feel right now,” Bailey said in a statement released by police in Wiltshire, England. “Surreal is the word that keeps cropping up — and it really has been completely surreal.”
Earlier Thursday, a British judge gave doctors permission to take blood samples from former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia following a special hearing in a specialist court in London.
The samples were being taken in order to be tested by chemical weapons investigators for nerve agent residue. Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were in the U.K. this week to investigate the Skripals’ poisoning.
The United Kingdom’s Court of Protection considered the decision because, according to the presiding judge, the Skirpals were unconscious and unable to give permission themselves.
The U.K. has accused Russia of being behind the poisoning of Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who has been living in England, and his daughter. The Skirpals remain hospitalized. Russia has denied the allegations.
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