LONDON (AP) — British police have sent two garbage bins to a defense research laboratory for testing as they probe the nerve-agent poisoning that left a woman dead and a man ill.

London's Metropolitan Police force says the trash cans were removed Thursday from behind shops in Salisbury, 90 miles (145 kms) southwest of London. The move follows conversations between detectives and Charlie Rowley, who is recovering from the June poisoning. His partner Dawn Sturgess died after the pair were exposed to the nerve agent Novichok.

Police think the couple handled a bottle containing the military-grade nerve agent. The same poison was used to attack former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March.

Britain blames the Russian government for that attack, a claim Moscow denies.