Five charged in attack on asylum seeker

LONDON — Authorities in London charged five people Monday over an unprovoked attack on a 17-year-old Iranian-Kurdish asylum-seeker as police sought to piece together the mob violence that involved up to 30 people. London’s Metropolitan Police say the five were charged with violent disorder, with one also being charged with racially aggravated grievous bodily harm following the attack Friday in the London borough of Croydon. Three others remain in custody. Police said a group approached the teen at a bus stop and questioned him. Upon learning he was an asylumseeker, they chased and beat him. The attack only stopped after police sirens could be heard and bystanders intervened. The teen’s two friends got away. The teen has been hospitalized with a fractured skull and a blood clot on the brain, but police say he is starting to make a recovery and may be moved out of intensive care. Detectives are trying to find the victim’s family, who live in Iran. He has not been identified. As the investigation has progressed, police have increased their estimates of the number of people involved in the highly unusual incident. “I think this was probably confidence by numbers,” Detective Superintendent Jane Corrigan said. “It started off with this smaller group of people, who were joined by between 20 to 30, and they just viciously attacked these individuals because they were asylum-seekers.”