HUNT FOR CHEMICAL ATTACKER

Suspect on run is known'sex offender. 12 hurt in assault on mum and 2 girls

- JEREMY ARMSTRONG, DAN WARBURTON and TOM PETTIFOR

A FUGITIVE wanted for a chemical attack on a woman and her two young daughters is a convicted sex offender.

Abdul Ezedi, 35, allegedly hurled a corrosive liquid at the woman, known to him, and her terrified daughters, aged eight and three.

The "targeted" assault hurt nine others, including police officers.

The 31-year-old woman screamed, "I can't see, I can't see", after being doused with an alkaline substance at 7.25pm on Wednesday on a street next to Clapham Common in South West London. The mum and her three-year-old daughter remain in hospital with what are thought to be "life-changing" injuries.

Ezedi was last seen with facial injuries at 8.48pm on Wednesday after buying a bottle of water in a Tesco store on Caledonian Road, North London.

Supt Gabriel Cameron said: "He has significant injuries to the right side of the face. We will catch him.

I am wholeheartedly confident we will catch him." Ezedi, who is said to have been granted asylum after two failed attempts, was convicted of a sexual offence in 2018.

He was handed a suspended sentence at Newcastle crown court for "sexual assault/exposure", with an unpaid work order which he completed in 2020 when he was discharged from probation supervision.

Witnesses, who saw the woman's skin strip off her face, said the attack involved a car. A witness said: "There was a little girl banging on the door on the man's side, the lady was crying, screaming, 'my eyes, police.