A convicted sex offender repeatedly denied asylum in the UK was being hunted on Friday for a chemical attack that injured several people, including a blind mother and her daughters – with wanted posters showing the suspect’s face also horribly disfigured.
Abdul Shakoor Ezedi, 35, a pizzeria worker who arrived from Afghanistan in 2016, is accused of injuring at least a dozen people by throwing alkaline substances at them on Wednesday night, the BBC reported.
A blind 31-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged 3 and 8, were injured in the “horrific” attack in Clapham in south London, the Metropolitan Police said.
Three other women and a man who came to their aid suffered minor burns and five policemen were also injured.
Ezedi was spotted on surveillance footage across the River Thames in North London about an hour after the 7:30pm attack, buying a bottle of water, police said as they released the last known image of him.
Police have released images of the suspect in the chemical attack in London. Metropolitan Police/AFP via Getty Images
“The image shows Ezedi with what appears to be a significant injury to the right side of his face,” police said, with a gruesome-looking wound covering most of his face around his right eye.
“This makes it distinctive.”
He is believed to have disappeared from the area on the subway, police said in an update Friday.
Abdul Shakoor Ezedi is accused of injuring several people with corrosive substances. ZUMAPRESS.com
The mother who was attacked “has suffered life-changing injuries,” police Commander Jon Savell said Friday.
The mother, who has not been identified, remains in critical but stable condition in hospital. Her children also remain hospitalized with injuries not considered life-changing, Savell said.
A witness described seeing the suspect lift a child above his head and throw him to the ground like a “ragdoll”, telling the BBC the attack was like a “horror movie.”
Ezedi was twice rejected for asylum before being granted permission to stay in 2022, despite being convicted of sexual assault and exposure in 2018, the Telegraph reported.
For the sexual assault, he received a nine-week prison sentence suspended for two years, a suspended sentence similar to parole in the US.
He was sentenced to 36 weeks to be served consecutively, also suspended for two years, for the revelations, the BBC reported.
His third asylum bid was successful after a priest confirmed his conversion to Christianity and argued he was “fully committed” to his new religion, according to the Telegraph.
Ezedi has claimed his life would be in danger if he is returned to Afghanistan.
Ezedi was granted asylum despite being convicted of sexual assault. ZUMAPRESS.com
Workers at Byker’s butcher shop in Newcastle, where Ezedi lived for about a year, said they were “horrified” that the pizzeria worker had been linked to the attack.
Ezedi told a shop worker how he planned to return to Afghanistan one day “to find a wife,” according to the Telegraph, which reported that he was at the Halal shop the day before the attack.
“He works in a pizza shop. Every two weeks he would come here to buy half a sheep,” the butcher told the shop.
“He would say, ‘I work at a pizza place at night and I don’t have time to shop and you’re going to close when I’m done.’ So, he would pay £50 or £60 for the meat. He said he put the meat in the fridge,” he said.
The worker added: “He never bought any alcohol. He is a good Muslim. Some Muslims do buy alcohol. But he never bought alcohol.”
Prime Minister’s spokesman Rishi Sunak declined to comment on Ezedi’s immigration status pending an ongoing police investigation.
But he told reporters that “the PM doesn’t think foreign criminals should be able to stay in this country, putting people at risk.”
Police Superintendent Gabriel Cameron said he “doesn’t know” what Ezedi’s motivations might be, but he is “wholeheartedly confident” he will be caught.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
