A British woman, Dawn Sturgess, 42, has died after she was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in western England, just a few miles away from where Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were attacked with the same poison months ago.

Sturgess was a mother of three and was exposed to the poison in western England a little more than a week ago.

It was only few miles from where the Skripals were attacked with Novichok- but survived. 

Police said the death of Sturgess is being treated as a murder.

They're looking at how she and a 45-year-old man media name as Charlie Rowley came across an item contaminated with the agent.

It's a poison that was developed by the Soviet Union's military.

Police are still trying to work out how the two cases may be linked.

Authorities say there's no evidence the pair visited any of the sites decontaminated after the first poisoning.

The attack on the Skripals sparked the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats in the West since the Cold War era with allies siding with Britain's view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the poison.

Russia hit back by kicking out Western diplomats.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the Skripal case and have suggested British security services carried out the attack to incite anti-Russian hysteria.