Russian hackers have attacked a Swiss lab that analysed Novichok nerve agent samples from the Salisbury, according to local media.

The state-run Spiez laboratory near Bern was targeted by hackers believed to be linked to the Russian government ahead of a conference of chemical and biological warfare experts in September, the mass-market Swiss newspaper Blick reported.

After Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury in March, the Swiss laboratory confirmed the British finding that they had fallen victim to the Soviet-developed military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

British authorities have alleged Russia is behind the attack, a charge Moscow denies.

Having created a fake email address to mimic the Spiez lab, the perpetrators sent a Word document to conference participants with malware embedded inside of it, the Federal Office for Civil Protection told the newspaper.

“Someone has posed as the Spiez laboratory. We immediately informed the conference invitees that the document was not ours, and pointed out the danger,” Kurt Münger of the office said.