A FUGITIVE wanted over a horrific chemical attack on a mother and two children sneaked into Britain in a lorry and had two asylum applications rejected.
Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, 35, from Newcastle, is still at large after 12 people were injured in the horrific attack at 7.25pm yesterday – and officers are urging people not to approach him.
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The moment when a woman and her children were attacked
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A new picture of Abdul Shokoor Ezedi has been published
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He is being pursued by the police for a ‘targeted’ chemical attack
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A white substance was sprayed on the car window
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Among the victims was a mother who wrestled with a chemical maniac who doused her and her young children with a corrosive liquid and then tried to run her over.
Citizens and police officers were also burnt while coming to the aid of the family.
Witnesses told how after the horrific attack, the woman staggered blindly down the street, moaning: “I can’t see. I cant see.”
The vulnerable victim — who is believed to have been living in hiding from Afghan refugee Abdul Ezedi — was targeted in Wednesday night’s attack.
It has now been revealed that Ezedi arrived in the UK in a lorry and did not claim asylum.
However, he then converted to Christianity and was accepted on the third attempt with a priest as a character witness.
Ezedi pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and one count of exposure before being granted asylum, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed.
He was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on 9 January 2018 to nine weeks in prison suspended for two years for sexual assault.
He was given a 36-week prison sentence for the exposure, to be served consecutively, which was also suspended for two years.
Shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, an argument broke out and spread to a residential street near Clapham Common, in southwest London.
Ezedi is believed to have followed his victim 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 local council.
All we know…
The suspect is believed to have grabbed the youngest child and placed him in the back of a white car.
As the mother and older 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 the back door before getting into the driver’s seat.
A woman and her daughter can be seen reaching out to each other with one hand while holding their eyes with the other. At one point, the suspect rammed into the woman, who threw her hands in the air.
He then jumped out of the car and grabbed the three-year-old before throwing her to the ground twice “like a rag doll”.
The suspect got back on the motorcycle but crashed into a parked car and fled the scene, pursued by members of the public.
Others who ran to help the family suffered burns themselves.
Mother-of-three Shannon Christie, who lives in an apartment building at the end of the road, was burned by the corrosive liquid when she went to rescue her youngest child.
Bus driver Shannon, 35, said: “I heard a commotion and ran out.
“I saw the little girl thrown to the floor. At that moment I ran over and grabbed her off the floor.
“I heard her mom yelling ‘I can’t see, I can’t see’. So I called my partner to get some water. The staff at the hospital came and poured water on her. At that moment my skin started to crawl.
“Me and the little girl went to the block to wash our eyes and face with water.”
‘AWFUL’
Shannon continued, correctly, “I think what happened was that she got it on her jacket when she fell on the floor and then it spread to me. I went to the hospital because my lips kept burning, but they couldn’t identify what it was.”
She added: “The youngest girl was three years old. I tried to talk to her and ask her name, but she just kept crying.
“Mom was walking down the street, but she didn’t see anything.
“The hotel staff also came out to help.”
Shannon said her partner chased the attacker, dressed in black but wearing slippers, and lost him. She added: “I think it was a family incident.”
Another witness said: “There was a little girl banging on the door from the man’s side, the woman was crying, screaming ‘my eyes, my eyes, the police.’ He opened the door, took the baby out and hit the ground twice, I’m talking hard, boom.”
Another witness added: “It was terrible. I heard people screaming. I saw the car and thought there had been an accident.
“I saw him get out of the driver’s side and take the child out of the back of the car. He stretched out his hands and threw her like a rag doll to the ground. Then he did it again. I thought she was dead. She didn’t make any noise.
“I heard the baby saying ‘I want my mummy, I want my mummy’. I’m relieved she’s alive. I saw a silver canister that may have contained a corrosive substance.”
One man said of the woman: “She was screaming, ‘My eyes! My eyes!’. I then ran to my house, grabbed a water bottle and poured water into her eyes. Her lips were black. Her skin looked burnt.”
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Officers inspect a cup of coffee left at the sceneCredit: w8media
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The suspect tried to run away, but crashed the car instead
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The video shows the man tripping while fleeing the scene
Hotel staff doused the mother and her children with water before doctors and firefighters arrived. Another witness said that the woman suffered burns on her face, which blackened her lips. They said: “She was screaming, ‘my eyes’. Her skin looked burnt.”
A 26-year-old man staying at a budget hotel described the woman as speaking fluent English and said she prayed while being treated for burns in the toilet.
He said: “The children were begging. The older kid was saying ‘thank you’ to people.
“The mother was calming her daughters down, she looked very bad, mother. She was crying, a Romanian woman was trying to clean her face.”
Meanwhile, locals inspected the scene, where a small pair of children’s shoes lay abandoned on the ground.
One man said: “I saw acid on the ground and two children’s shoes on the floor. The car was in the middle of the road with the door open.”
The mother and her daughters were being treated at the hospital’s trauma center last night. Four citizens also received burns.
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Three women – two in their 30s and one in their 50s – who “bravely came to the aid of the family” have been released from hospital.
The fourth person refused help. Five policemen were also helped.
Police were trying to piece together the chain of events last night.
And they warned the people not to approach the dangerous Ezedi.
He lived in Newcastle for several years but is believed to have recently traveled to London. Witnesses said Ezedi spent his days “hanging around the streets” of Newcastle near the hostel where he lived last summer.
And garage owner Bilal Khan, 34, told how he pestered him to lower the price of the car he wanted to buy.
Mr Khan said: “He was persistent and annoying in the way he tried to lower the price. I had a black automatic Ford Fiesta for sale for £5,000 and he kept coming and trying to buy it for £4,000.
“He’s a small, skinny guy, nothing threatening about him, but I didn’t like the way he went about things. When I told him no, he got a friend involved and tried to get me to drop the price. I don’t like dealing with people from the hostel, there are a lot of problems and drugs there, so I didn’t really want to mess around.
“It’s horrible to think that he’s involved in this acid attack, I really feel for the children involved.
Met boss lashes out at ‘gruesome’ attack
MET Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said an urgent manhunt had been launched for the attacker.
Speaking on BBC News, Sir Mark said: “It’s understandably terrifying.
“Fortunately, acid and chemical attacks are extremely rare.
“We had them two or three years ago, you may remember.
“It’s not something we’ve seen at all lately, I’m happy to say.
“This is a terrible attack, and the first thing to say is that we have a live search.
“We believe that the suspected perpetrator was known to the victims.
“We have a large team of officials, including local officials who dealt with it with the help of colleagues.
“We’re hunting him as we speak.”
“From what I could see, he spent his days alone hanging around the street near the hostel.”
Locals in King’s Cross, north London, said Ezedi had recently been staying there and had gone to the job centre.
Met Police Chief Gabriel Cameron said: “We are working to establish the circumstances.
“The search for Ezedi is ongoing. We are working with partner agencies and forces, including British Transport Police, to locate and arrest him. If you see Ezedi, immediately call 999. He should not be approached.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “Last night’s attack on a mother and her two children in Clapham was horrific.
“My thoughts are with them and the brave citizens and police who intervened. I am asking members of the public to support the Metropolitan Police’s appeal and to come forward if they have any information.”
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A car was seen being removed from the scene this morning
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CCTV showed the horror unfolding in Lessar Avenue as witnesses ran to help the victims
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education