A convicted sex offender who was repeatedly denied asylum in the United Kingdom was being hunted Friday over a chemical attack that injured several people, including a blind mother and her young daughters, and a wanted poster showed the suspect’s face. also horribly disfigured.
Abdul Shakoor Ezedi, 35, a pizza restaurant worker who arrived from Afghanistan in 2016, allegedly injured at least a dozen people by throwing an alkaline substance at them on Wednesday night, the BBC reported.
A 31-year-old woman was blinded and her two daughters, aged 3 and 8, were injured in the “horrific” attack in exclusive Clapham, south London, the Metropolitan Police said.
Three other women and a man who came to her aid suffered minor burns and five police officers were also injured.
Ezedi was seen on surveillance footage across the 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 an image of the London chemical attack suspect. Metropolitan Police/AFP via Getty Images
“The image shows Ezedi with what appear to be significant injuries to the right side of his face,” police said, with a horrific-looking wound covering a large portion of his face around his right eye.
“This makes it distinctive.”
He is believed to have disappeared from the area on a subway train, police said in an update Friday.
Abdul Shakoor Ezedi allegedly injured several people with a corrosive substance. ZUMAPRESS.com
The mother who was attacked “suffered life-changing injuries,” Police Commander Jon Savell said Friday.
The unidentified mother remained in critical but stable condition at a hospital. Her children also remained hospitalized with injuries that are not believed to be life-changing, Savell said.
One witness described seeing the suspect lift a girl above his head and throw her to the ground like a “rag doll”, and told the BBC the attack was like a “horror movie”.
Ezedi was denied asylum twice before being granted permission to stay in 2022, despite being found guilty 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 deferred sentence similar to probation in the United States.
He was sentenced to 36 consecutive weeks to serve, also suspended for two years, for the exposure, the BBC reported.
His third asylum application was successful after a priest endorsed his conversion to Christianity and argued that he was “fully committed” to his new religion, according to the Telegraph.
Ezedi had claimed that his life would be in danger if he was returned to Afghanistan.
Ezedi was granted asylum despite being convicted of sexual assault. ZUMAPRESS.com
Workers at the Byker 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 store employee that he planned to one day return to Afghanistan “to find a wife,” according to the Telegraph, which reported that he was at the Halal store the day before the attack.
“He works in a pizzeria. “Every two weeks I came here to buy half a sheep,” the butcher told the outlet.
“He would say, ‘I’m working at a pizzeria at night and I don’t have time to shop and when I’m done working, you’re closed.’ So you’d pay £50 or £60 for the meat. “He said he put the meat in the freezer,” he said.
The worker added: “He never bought alcohol. He was a good Muslim. Some Muslims buy alcohol. But he never bought alcohol.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman declined to comment on Ezedi’s immigration status during an ongoing police investigation.
But he told reporters that “the prime minister does not believe that foreign criminals should be able to remain in the country, putting the public at risk.”
Police Superintendent Gabriel Cameron said he had “no idea” what Ezedi’s motivation might have been, but was “completely confident” he would be caught.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn