Dec 13, 2006, 8:56 GMT
Stockholm - Six Swedish nationals who recently visited a London hotel bar have been contacted by health authorities to undergo radiation tests, news reports said Wednesday.
A potential polonium radiation victim arrives at the St. Georg Hospital in Hamburg, Germany, Monday 11 December 2006. EPA/SEBASTIAN WIDMANN
In all, eight Swedish nationals have been traced by British and Swedish authorities after visiting London late October and early November.
Six had visited the Pine Bar in London's Millenium Hotel where seven staff members at the bar had earlier tested positive for 'small levels' of polonium-210, the toxic isotope that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko last month.
In addition, a Swedish couple that had stayed at the Shaftesbury Hotel near Picadilly were Tuesday tested at the oncology unit at Lund University Hospital in southern Sweden, the Stockholm daily Expressen reported.
The hotel room the couple had stayed in apparently had traces of polonium.
'According to our assessment there is no health risk, but they have been to places that were contaminated. They have to be tested so we can get a clear picture,' Jonas Holst of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare said.
The agency said the tests were precautionary.
Litvinenko met two Russian contacts for drinks at the Pine Bar on November 1, hours before he fell ill. He died November 23.
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