A mother and a child hurt in a chemical attack in south London may have suffered life-changing injuries, police searching for a “dangerous” suspect say.
The 31-year-old woman and her three-year-old daughter, alongside her other daughter, aged eight, remain in hospital following the attack in Clapham last night, in which a man threw a corrosive substance.
The man attempted to make off from the scene in a car, but collided with another vehicle, and then made off on foot in the direction of Clapham Common.
Police say an alkaline substance was thrown in what has been described by officers as a “targeted attack”.
They have described the suspect – who is believed to be known to the woman – as a “dangerous individual” and have said they “urgently” need to find him.
Image: Pic: James Weech/PA Wire
Superintendent Gabriel Cameron, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “The woman, who is aged 31, and her two daughters – aged eight and three – all remain in hospital.
“While none of their conditions are life-threatening, the injuries to the woman and younger girl could be life-changing.
“It may be some time before hospital staff are able to say how serious that might be.”
About the suspect, he added: “While this appears a targeted attack, he is a dangerous individual and we urgently need to find him.
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“We will release more information about him as soon as we can.”
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, also described the incident as “ghastly” and said a “live manhunt” was underway.
“It is understanding that it is frightening. Fortunately, attacks using acid and chemicals are exceedingly rare,” he told BBC Radio London.
He also praised the bravery of his officers who attended the incident, as well as the witnesses who intervened.
Image: Pic: James Weech/PA
Image: Pic: Sky News
A total of 12 people were hurt during the incident, including five police officers who were injured as they responded.
Three women – two in their 30s and one in her 50s – were also injured when they came to the aid of the woman and her two children.
They have all been discharged from hospital with minor burns injuries.
A man in his 50s who also helped declined hospital treatment for minor injuries he suffered.
It comes after footage emerged of the attack, which took place on Lessar Avenue shortly before 7.30pm on Wednesday.
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The CCTV footage shows a man running around a car before getting into the driver’s seat, with a woman and child in front of the vehicle holding their hands to their faces.
In the video, a car is driven at the woman and strikes her, before a man stops the vehicle and gets out. He opens the back door and appears to remove a child, before violently throwing them to the ground.
The video also appears to show people from neighbouring properties leaving their homes to chase the man down the road.
Eyewitnesses, meanwhile, have described what they saw.
One witness, who asked to remain anonymous, told Sky News: “There was a man in a white car with two children. It looked like he tried to run over a woman. They had been fighting.
“One girl in the back had her hand on the window – you can see the mark on the car.
“He grabbed one of the two children and violently grabbed them and slammed them on the floor.
“The lady then shouted: ‘My eyes! My eyes! Call the police, my eyes!’
“Then I saw him run off. It was all so traumatising.”
Image: Police at the scene. Pic: James Weech/PA
Image: Police at the scene. Pic: James Weech/PA
Another witness described how he tried to wash the chemical from the woman’s face.
“It was horrific,” he told Sky News. “First a man grabbed his kid – a girl aged two or three from a white car. He threw her onto the floor – twice. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
“The man then threw something at the woman. She was screaming: ‘My eyes! My eyes!’
“I then ran into my house, grabbed a water bottle and threw water on her eyes. Her lips were black. Her skin looked burnt.
“I then chased the man halfway down the street. I was wearing my slippers so didn’t get very far.”
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
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Millions of Iranians unite in mourning
The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
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The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
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The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.