The British government says a former Russian spy who died in London was poisoned with a radioactive substance.
Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and Kremlin opponent, died late on Thursday after spending days in intensive care in a London hospital.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said the rare radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in his urine.
Pat Troop is the chief executive of the agency.
 "What we've had is an unprecedented event in the UK, that someone has apparently, deliberately been poisoned with a type of radiation."
Pat Troop said that the high level of polonium-210 indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."
In a statement outside University College Hospital on Friday, Litvinenko's father Walter said his son "was killed by a little, tiny nuclear bomb."
Home Secretary John Reid chaired a meeting of COBRA, the government's emergency committee, to discuss Litvinenko's death.
Polonium-210 occurs naturally and is present in the environment at very low concentrations, but can represent a radiation hazard if ingested.
Scientists claimed small amounts of polonium-210 were used legitimately in Britain for industrial purposes and easily available.
Litvinenko, 43, had told police he believed he had been poisoned on November 1st while investigating the October slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Police said they were treating the case as an "unexplained death" - but not, yet, a murder.
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