UK: MUSLIM ‘acid’ attacker, Abdul Ezedi, could already be dead, former counterterrorism chief claims as manhunt enters fifth day

Metropolitan Police officers have been chasing the 35-year-old Afghan Muslim asylum seeker, Abdul Ezedi, since Wednesday after he doused a mother and her two daughters in a horrific chemical attack in Clapham. The woman, who suffered potentially life-changing injuries, was known to Ezedi and remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition.

Daily Mail Nick Aldworth, a former national counter-terrorism co-ordinator, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think if we’ve not seen or heard from him in the the last couple of days, which appears to be the case, he’s gone to ground, possibly supported by somebody… or it’s not unlikely or improbable that he may have taken his own life. There is therefore a body to be found somewhere.’

The force said the last sighting of Ezedi, who is from Newcastle, was at 9.33pm at Tower Hill Underground station in east London on January 31, shortly after the attack in Clapham. Asked if the Met Police would now have a precise location for his whereabouts, he said: ‘I think they’ll have a very good sense of what area he’s in.

‘What you can’t discount of course is that he has been picked up by an ally and moved somewhere else, perhaps in a vehicle. The reason they’ve offered a £20,000 reward is usually because there’s a sense that somebody inside the community might well be harbouring this individual.’

Mr Aldworth said the Met would be tracking Ezedi’s movements through public cameras, which had been a ‘very effective’ method in previous cases. The force said the last sighting of Ezedi, who is from Newcastle, was at 9.33pm at Tower Hill Underground station in east London on January 31, shortly after the attack in Clapham.

It comes as questions have been raised over how the suspect, who was granted asylum in the UK after two failed attempts, was able to stay in the country despite being convicted of a sex offence.

Ezedi allegedly threw the younger child to the ground during the attack at 7.25pm, before attempting to drive away from the scene, crashing into a stationary vehicle and fleeing on foot. Minutes later he boarded a Tube train at Clapham South Underground station, and by 8pm he was at King’s Cross Tube station.

Police say three members of the public who came to the aid of the family during Wednesday’s attack, two aged in their 30s and one in her 50s, have all been discharged from hospital with minor burns. BBC Radio 4 also interviewed a woman who suffered third degree burns to her foot while rescuing the three-year-old girl in the attack.

New footage released by the force today showed Ezedi strolling through the Tesco store with what appears to be a large burn mark over his right eye. He looks face-down at the floor every time he passes a fellow customer or member of staff.