Clapham chemical attack: Police raid addresses in North Tyneside

Image source, Met Police

Image caption, Police have been searching for Abdul Shokoor Ezedi for nearly eight days

Police looking for the Clapham chemical attack suspect have raided two addresses in North Tyneside, including where he worked.

Officers have been searching for nearly eight days for Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, 35, who is wanted for attempted murder after a mother and her two children were injured by a corrosive liquid.

Armed police raided the addresses in the early hours of Thursday, Metropolitan Police said.

The addresses were associated with Ezedi, including a pizza takeaway where he worked and a flat above, as part of a joint operation with Northumbria Police.

The latest raids are part of a string of searches at addresses in London and the north of England, where he lived in Newcastle.

Police believe Ezedi, who suffered significant facial injuries in the attack, may be being helped to evade capture. A £20,000 reward is in place for information leading to his arrest.

He was last seen on the day of the attack crossing Vauxhall Bridge Road into Grosvenor Road, in the Pimlico area at 23:03 GMT.

Ezedi is accused of pouring a strong alkali on his ex-partner and injuring her two young children, aged three and eight, in an attack in Clapham on 31 January.

The woman, 31, who remains in a critical condition sedated in hospital, could lose sight in her right eye.

Media caption, Watch: Ezedi’s injuries could be fatal, Cmdr Jon Savell warns

Met Police Cdr Jon Savell said on Wednesday the manhunt is “an incredibly high-priority attempted murder investigation”.

Turning to potential motives, he said: “They were in a relationship and that relationship had broken down.”

A friend of the woman described her as a “devoted and loving mother”, before saying: “All she has ever wanted is a safe home for her and her beautiful, kind little girls.”

Ezedi is not the father of the children who were hurt.

The Afghan refugee came to the UK in a lorry in 2016, and had his asylum claim rejected twice before he successfully appealed against the Home Office by claiming he had converted to Christianity.

Ezedi was also convicted of two sexual offences in 2018 but was allowed to stay because his crimes did not meet the threshold for deportation.

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