Teens held after acid is thrown in faces of five moped riders
A TERRIFIED delivery driver told last night how his helmet saved him from horrific injuries when he was ambushed by a gang of acid attackers.
Jabed Hussain, 30, was left screaming for water when two teenagers aged just 15 and 16 flicked a corrosive liquid on to his face as he waited at traffic lights.
As the father-of-one begged passers-by for help, one of the pair leapt on his ‘pride and joy’ moped and sped off.
Mr Hussain was the first victim in a spree of five acid attacks that have sparked calls for the Government to crack down on the rising menace.
Four other riders were left injured in a 72-minute reign of terror across London, including a 24-year-old man who has been scarred for life. Police believe all the victims were targeted for their vehicles, which are prized by robbery gangs who can use them to more easily snatch unsuspecting Londoners’ phones.
They were questioning two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and robbery.
Mr Hussain, who works for Uber Eats, said he was first alerted when he felt some liquid hit his face below his visor which was pulled down ‘quite a way’.
‘Then I suddenly had this terrible burning sensation on the left side of my face and my lips,’ he said. ‘I jumped off the bike and tore my helmet off and then I just started screaming for water.
‘There were some cars behind me in the traffic but the first few drivers just pulled their open windows up as I begged for help.
‘I had staggered from my bike and left the keys in the ignition.
‘It was then I looked across and one of the young guys on the bike with his accomplice just ran over and started my bike up and drove away following his friend. There was nothing I could do.’
Mr Hussain said police emptied bottle after bottle of water on his face after grabbing supplies from a nearby shop.
He was taken to the Royal London Hospital where he saw two other victims of the acid attacks, including a man with serious burns to the side of his face. When he returned home in the early hours, he said his wife and threeyear- old daughter Isha were shocked by his injuries.
He said: ‘When my daughter saw my face last night she was screaming and crying.
‘I am scared and my family are really scared, I am scared to go to work tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, it could happen again.’ Police suspect the same robbers were responsible for four more attacks in north and east London.
Dozens of officers closed roads and evacuated buses as the NHS sent out a specialist burns unit to treat the victims.
Residents described how scores of moped delivery riders also appeared as word spread of the attacks on their colleagues, including one on a Deliveroo driver. Mr Hussain was attacked when the thugs pulled up alongside him on Queensbridge Road, Hackney, just after 10.20pm on Thursday.
Around 30 minutes later, police were called to St Paul’s Road, on the border of Hackney and Islington, where a 44-year-old man had acid thrown in his face. He was taken to hospital.
Shortly after 11pm, there was a third attack a few miles away in Shoreditch High Street, in which a 52-year- old moped rider was attacked. His injuries are not believed to be serious.
The most serious attack then took place in Upper Clapton, where a 24-year- old man was sprayed in the face. Police said his injuries are ‘life-changing’.
At 11.37pm the final attack took place on Chatsworth Road, east London, when another man was sprayed in the face with acid and his moped stolen.
The spree comes as the number of assaults involving corrosive substances has risen by more than 30 per cent in the last two years.
Last year there were 454 crimes in London in which a corrosive was used or used as a threat, compared with 261 in 2015, according to the Met.
Thursday’s attacks also combined the worrying trend in moped thefts, in which rampant gangs of youths are snatching hundreds of machines to use in further crimes.