How can he have simply vanished?
As police offer £20,000 reward for capture of the alkali attacker...
POLICE have offered a £20,000 reward for information about Clapham chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi, who has evaded detectives for more than four days.
As the Metropolitan Police warned that anyone helping him would also be arrested, it released new CCTV footage showing him calmly buying a bottle of water hours after allegedly dousing a mother and her children with alkaline.
But the force revealed it has not had any sighting of the Afghan asylum seeker since the evening of the attack last Wednesday.
Officers confirmed the 35-year-old, who had been in a relationship with the woman, was last seen exiting Tower Hill Underground station at 9.33pm. After fleeing the scene on Lessar Avenue in the south London suburb at 7.30pm, Ezedi visited a Tesco Express store on Caledonian Road, north London.
He bought a bottle of water before boarding a southbound Victoria Line train from King’s Cross at 9pm. The suspect arrived at Victoria Station at 9.10pm before switching Tube lines, departing on the eastbound District Line at 9.16pm, before exiting the station in east London.
The footage shows him strolling through the Tesco store with a large
‘This has gone on for long enough’
burn mark over his right eye, clutching a bottle of water.
Dressed in a blue T- shirt with a black coat and jeans, he looks down at the floor every time he passes a fellow customer or member of staff.
Met commander Jon Savell said: ‘Your help is critical. A reward of up to £20,000 is now available for information leading to his arrest.
‘I must warn anyone who is helping Ezedi to evade capture – if you are harbouring or assisting him then you will be arrested.’
Mr Savell also provided more information on the chemical used in the attack on the 31-year-old woman and her daughters, aged three and eight. He said the liquid was ‘a very strong concentrated corrosive substance, either liquid sodium hydroxide or liquid sodium carbonate.’
The mother is sedated in hospital with ‘life-changing’ injuries, but her children were released after being treated.
Darius Nasimi, who runs the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association charity, made a direct appeal to Ezedi. He said: ‘Abdul, I am speaking directly to you. I want you to go straight to a police station immediately.
‘You have a serious injury that needs to be seen to but, more importantly, you must do the right thing and hand yourself in to police. This has gone on for long enough.’ Ezedi arrived in the UK in 2016 and gained asylum in 2020 despite being convicted of sexual assault and exposure.
He was living in Newcastle and it was claimed a priest had confirmed he had converted to Christianity to help his asylum case. But church leaders in the North East say there is no record of him switching religions.
It came as it was revealed a woman suffered burn injuries to her eyeballs rugby tackling Ezedi to the ground moments after the attack.
The National Crime Agency, Britain’s equivalent of the FBI, was drafted in by the Met on Saturday night to help find Ezedi. Officers from the agency are focusing on whether he may be receiving help from an organised crime group to evade capture.
Former officers yesterday defended investigators against critics who questioned why Ezedi had still not been caught. Sue Sim, the former police chief who led the manhunt for murderer Raoul Moat, said four days on the run was ‘not significant’.
David Videcette, a veteran detective of 20 years with the Met Police, said: ‘Hunting someone who doesn’t want to be found and is possibly being harboured by people supportive of his actions, is a very challenging task.
‘It’s not like you see on TV in your favourite makebelieve cop show.’