Clapham attack: Major update as urgent manhunt continues – after police search suspect's brother's home – The Sun

Police said the manhunt for Abdul Ezedi continues after they searched the house of the suspect's brother.

The 35-year-old, from the Newcastle area, is still on the run Twelve people were injured in the horror attack on Wednesday evening.

6

6

6

Police describe the suspect as having “significant injuries to the right side of his face” after he was last seen in a north London supermarket.

The sighting took place just over an hour after an attack on a 31-year-old woman, believed to be an acquaintance of Ezedi, who was with her daughters aged three and eight.

All three victims are still in hospital.

Members of the public and police officers were also burned as they rushed to the family's aid.

Today, police provided an update on the victims and a timeline of Ezedi's movements.

Metropolitan Police Commander Jon Savell said: “Firstly, an update on how our victims are doing.

“The mother is still very ill in hospital and is currently being sedated. We expect these injuries to be life-changing.

“Thankfully we have received an update from the hospital that the injuries suffered by the two young children who were with her are not as serious as initially thought and are not likely to be life-changing.

“They remain with their mother in the care of the NHS, and we obviously wish them the very best recovery we can.”

He continued: “As for our manhunt for Ezedi, we have a large team of highly experienced detectives leading the manhunt, using all the tactics you would expect from us, with many officers on the ground.

“We are working very closely with colleagues at Transport for London, the British Transport Police and our colleagues at Northumbria Police.

Five search warrants were executed last night: two in East London and three in Newcastle.

“And we have recovered some significant and important pieces of evidence that will help us in our investigation.

“I'd like to give you an overview of the timeline we know so far in relation to what happened and the movements on Wednesday.

'So we know that it is Eddie who left Newcastle very early on Wednesday morning and traveled to London.

“Around 6.30am he was in the Tooting area.

“At approximately 4.30pm his vehicle was sighted again in Croydon and at around 7pm he was in the Streatham area.

“As you know the horrific attack took place at 25 past 7pm in Clapham and it is 33 minutes past 7. He boards the train at Clapham South tube.

“We know that he was at Kings Cross tube station at 8pm and that he saw the images around a quarter to nine. He was captured in Tesco on the Caledonian Road. These are the images you saw with a fairly significant facial injury.

“Thankfully, thanks to the great response from the public, we are able to track him and we know that he boarded the train at 9pm – a southbound Victoria line, and we still have some footage of the train. CCTV that my colleagues will share with you soon.”

Savell appealed directly to Ezedi, saying: 'Abdul, you clearly have some very serious injuries.

'We have seen the images. You need medical help, so do the right thing and turn yourself in.”

Ezedi has been hunted by the policewho urged the public not to confront him.

He was last seen at 8.48pm in a north London Tesco, near King's Cross Station, where he is believed to have bought a bottle of water.

Terrifying photos showed his face melted and bloody as he shopped quietly in a blue T-shirt and black hoodie.

In the early hours of this morning officers hunting Ezedi raided an address in Leyton, East London.

Show snaps Police wearing hazmat suits and PPE face masks, as an obvious precaution against hazardous chemicals.

A source said a large number of officers swarmed the Leyton address just before 2am and smashed down doors.

The London Fire Brigade said the call was made at 1.47am and firefighters remained at the scene until 5.29am.

Witnesses have told how the woman staggered blindly down the street after the horrific attack, wailing: 'I can't see. I can not see.'

The vulnerable victim – probably lived in in hiding from the Afghan refugee Abdul Ezedi – was targeted in Clapham on Wednesday evening.

Now that has been proven Ezedi arrived in Britain in a truck and could not file a claim asylum.

However, he subsequently converted Christianity and was accepted on his third attempt with a priest as character witness.

Ezedi pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one charge of indecent exposure before he was granted asylum, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed.

He was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on January 9, 2018 to a nine-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, for the assault.

TRACKED DOWN

For the unmasking he received a prison sentence of 36 weeks, which was also extended by two years.

Just before 7.30pm on Wednesday, a row broke out and spilled into a residential street near Clapham Common, south-west London.

Ezedi is said to have tracked his victim down to the two-star Clapham South Belvedere hotel, where she was staying with her daughters aged eight and three in a room provided by the council.

The suspect allegedly grabbed the youngest child and put him in the back of a white car.

When the mother and eldest daughter tried to intervene, he threw an alkaline substance, believed to be oven cleaner, at them.

Shocking CCTV footage shows the man running around the car and slamming a rear door before getting into the driver's seat.

The woman and her daughter are seen reaching for each other with one hand while holding their eyes with the other.

At one point the suspect drives up to the woman who throws her arms in the air.

He then jumped out of the car and grabbed the three-year-old child before throwing her to the ground “like a rag doll” twice.

The suspect got back into the motorcycle, but crashed into a parked car and fled the scene, pursued by the public.

Others who rushed to help the family suffered burns themselves.

Mum-of-three Shannon Christie, who lives in a block of flats at the end of the road, was scalded by the corrosive liquid when she went to rescue the youngest child.

'HORRIBLE'

Bus driver Shannon, 35, said: “I heard the commotion and ran outside.

“I saw a little girl thrown to the ground. That's when I ran in and picked her up off the ground.

“I heard her mother screaming, 'I can't see, I can't see.' So I called my partner to get some water.

“The hospital staff came and doused her with water. At that moment my skin started to tingle.

“Me and the little girl went into the block to wash our eyes and faces with water.”

Shannon continued, “I think what happened is she got it on her jacket when she fell to the ground and then it transferred to me.

“I went to the hospital because my lips kept burning, but they couldn't identify what the substance was.”

She added: “The youngest girl was three years old. I tried to talk to her and ask her name, but she kept crying.

“The mother walked down the street, but she couldn't see anything.

“The hotel staff also came to help.”

'MY EYES'

Shannon shared how her partner chased by the attackerdressed in black but was wearing slippers and lost it.

She added: “I think it was a domestic incident.”

Another witness said: “There was a little girl banging on the door on the man's side, the lady was crying and shouting 'my eyes, my eyes, police'.

“He opened the door, took the baby out and hit her on the ground twice. I'm talking loud, boom.”

Another female witness added: “It was horrible. I heard people screaming. I saw a car and thought there had been an accident.

“I saw him get out of the driver's side and take a child out of the back of the car.

“He stretched out his arms and threw her to the ground like a rag doll.

'Then he did it again. I thought she was dead. She didn't make a sound.

“I heard the baby say, 'I want my mother, I want my mother.' I was so relieved that she was still alive.

“I saw a silver can that may have contained the corrosive substance.”

One man said of the woman: “She screamed, 'My eyes! My eyes!'.

“I then ran into my house, grabbed a water bottle and threw water in her eyes. Her lips were black. Her skin looked burned.”

6

6

6