[scemHeish]

In September 1978, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was murdered after a tiny pellet containing the toxin ricin was fired into his leg from the tip of an umbrella as he was walking across Waterloo Bridge. Mr Markov, a communist defector who was working for the BBC World Service, was waiting at a bus stop when he felt a sharp jab in his thigh and saw a man picking up an umbrella. He developed a high temperature and died three days later.




A post-mortem examination, conducted with the help of scientists from the Government's germ warfare centre at Porton Down, established he had been killed by a tiny pellet containing a 0.2 milligram dose of ricin. Pictured, the 1.52mm diameter platinum sphere that contained the ricin is examined at the Police Forensic Science Services Laboratory, Lambeth, London.




Despite the collaboration of British and Bulgarian authorities and Interpol, Mr Markov's assassin has never been caught.
Police in the Strand in 1978 questioning taxi drivers about the incident.




Earlier this year Anna Chapman, pictured, was one of several people arrested by the FBI in the US in connection with being Russian agents.