UK police reported on Wednesday that nine people, including two children and three police officers, were injured after an unknown man threw a “corrosive substance” in the capital.
The Metropolitan said police were called to Lessar Avenue in Clapham at around 7.25pm local time following the “horrific incident.”
While tests are ongoing to determine what the substance is, at this stage we believe it to be a corrosive substance.
A woman with her two young children, another three adults and three officers were taken to hospital as a result of the attack. A search for the culprit is underway.
“A man was seen fleeing the scene. We are drawing on resources from across the Met to apprehend this individual and work is ongoing to determine what has led to this awful incident.”
Police named Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, 35, as a suspect in the chemical attack, with Superintendent Gabriel Cameron informing a news conference that Ezedi was last seen in the Caledonian Road area of North London on Wednesday night.
Ezedi, a native of the Newcastle area, has “serious injuries” to the right side of his face and may be travelling back to the North East. Cameron stated that he had “no idea” what the culprit’s motives were. The superintendent is also wholeheartedly confident” that the suspected man will be caught.
