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The attempted murder of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, using a nerve agent was a “brazen and reckless attack”, Amber Rudd has said.

Mr Skripal and his daughter are still critically ill after being found collapsed on a bench in Salisbury city centre on Sunday. Counter-terrorism officers are working to find the origin of the nerve agent.

A police officer, who was in intensive care, is now “stable and conscious”, Wiltshire’s chief constable said.

Addressing the House of Commons, the home secretary said the attack was “attempted murder in the most cruel and public way”.

Ms Rudd told MPs it was an “outrageous crime”, adding that the government would “act without hesitation as the facts become clearer”. She refused to speculate on whether the Russian state might have been involved in the attack, saying the police investigation should be based on “facts, not rumour”. However, she said the government was committed to bringing the perpetrators to justice “whoever they are and wherever they may be”.

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A bomb designed to cause “carnage” and planted on a London Underground train was made with materials sourced from Asda and Aldi a court has heard.

An Old Bailey jury heard commuters faced “a furnace engulfed in flames” when the device exploded at Parsons Green during London’s rush hour.

Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of planting the bomb on the District Line on 15 September, 2017. He denies attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

The court heard that Mr Hassan originally told police he was responsible for the bomb.

One passenger, Aimee Colville, described “shards of glass flying through the air and then flames”. Jurors heard she could “smell herself burning and saw her hair was on fire”. Thirty people were injured in the incident: some badly burned, and others injured in the “stampede” as they fled in fear and panic, the Old Bailey was told.

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Medics in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area of Syria say they have been treating people with breathing problems after a suspected chlorine attack.

The reports follow government air strikes and shelling just hours after the last UN aid envoy left the enclave following a supposed five-hour truce.

Syria denied allegations it had carried out the attack, dismissing them as an act of desperation by Western powers. Russia meanwhile has offered rebels safe passage out of the area.

The latest suspected chemical attack targeted the town of Hammoria and led to the evacuation of dozens of civilians, according to the Syrian Civil Defence, whose volunteer rescue workers are widely known as the White Helmets.
The group tweeted that “more 30 suffocation cases”, including women and children, were reported following what it described as a “regime gas attack”.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group, which uses a network of sources on the ground, said it could not specify the cause of the illnesses.

Syrian state media suggested the attack had been staged amid “desperate attempts by some Western countries in the [UN] Security Council and the Human Rights Council to rescue terrorists who will face their inevitable end at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army”.

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The UK would respond “robustly” to any evidence of Russian involvement in the collapse of former spy Sergei Skripal, Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, in her 30s, are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The foreign secretary said he was not pointing fingers at this stage, but described Russia as “a malign and disruptive force”. Russia has denied any involvement.

Counter Terrorism Police have taken over the investigation from Wiltshire Police. But in a statement, the unit said the inquiry had not been declared a terrorist incident and there was no risk to the wider public.

Mr Skripal – a former Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain – and his daughter were found slumped on a bench outside a shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier they were seen walking through an alley leading from a Zizzi restaurant, which has now been “secured” by police. The Bishop’s Mill pub has also been cordoned off “as a precaution”.

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A man has shot and killed himself outside the White House in Washington, the Secret Service says.

It said the man approached the White House’s fence on Pennsylvania Avenue just before noon local time (17:00GMT) before taking out a handgun and firing several shots. No one else was injured, according to police.

President Donald Trump was not at the White House, but at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The man was in a large crowd when he fired the gun, the Washington Post reports, citing witnesses.

A video posted to Twitter shows many people running away from the scene. The man’s name has not been released.

Washington DC police earlier said on Twitter that their “natural death squad” was on the scene. Geoff Bennett, White House correspondent for NBC News, said that journalists were “sheltering” in the press briefing room.

Mr Trump was with First Lady Melania Trump in Florida. They were scheduled to return for a dinner in Washington on Saturday evening.

There have been a number of security incidents at the White House in recent years. Most recently, on 23 February, a car drove into a security barrier outside the building. A 35-year-old woman was detained.

In March last year a man armed with pepper spray spent more than 16 minutes inside the grounds after jumping the fence.