man suspected of chemical attack tracked by London police

The lives of the victims of the attack (a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters) are “not in danger”, but their injuries will mark them “forever”, according to the London police.

The lives of the victims are not “not in danger”but their wounds will mark them “forever”, according to law enforcement. London police are tracking down a man suspected of attacking a woman and her two daughters with a chemical substance on Wednesday January 31 in London.

Abdul Ezedi, a 35-year-old man residing in the Newcastle area (north-east of England), allegedly sprayed a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters aged 8 and 3 with an “alkaline” substance (from type soda or bleach) in the middle of the street, around 7:30 p.m. The police chief ruled out at this stage the hypothesis of a terrorist attack, explaining that the man and woman knew each other.

The three victims were still hospitalized Friday. Nine people (four passers-by and five police officers) were also injured by this substance when they helped the victims, and eight of them were taken to hospital, police said.

Chemical attacks on the rise

According to British media, Abdul Ezedi, who is believed to have arrived from Afghanistan in 2016, was previously convicted in 2018 of a sexual offense and given a suspended sentence by Newcastle Crown Court. According to the same source, he obtained asylum in the United Kingdom after two failures. Several Conservative MPs urged the government to further tighten reception conditions on British soil, and to carry out “a thorough examination” of the suspect’s file.

After a series of attacks involving corrosive substances which shocked the United Kingdom, reaching the number of 941 in 2017, these incidents have become rarer thanks to tightened controls on the sale of these products in 2019. The number of attacks, however, started to rise again in 2022, with 710 attacks in England and Wales, according to the organization Acid Survivors Trust International.