Two teenagers, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, have been arrested as police launch a major investigation into a series of five acid attacks that took place in less than 90 minutes in east London on Thursday night.
One of the victims was said to have suffered “life-changing” injuries during one of the attacks, which were carried out by two male suspects on a moped.
The Metropolitan police said the incidents on Thursday night appeared to be linked, and two involved victims having their mopeds stolen. Police said two male teenagers had been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery.
The Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, condemned the acid attacks as “completely barbaric” in an LBC interview on Friday morning.
Police said the attackers pulled up to five people and doused them with corrosive liquid in five separate attacks between 10.25pm and 11.37pm.
Chief Inspector Ben Clark, from Hackney Borough, said that not all the victims were delivery drivers, contrary to rumours circulating, but they were all riding mopeds at the time of the attacks.
The attacks began when a 32-year-old moped rider was approached by the two male suspects as he rode on the Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road.
The pair tossed the noxious substance into his face before one of them jumped on to his vehicle and drove away. Police said the man had gone to an east London hospital and they were awaiting an update on his injuries.
Little more than 20 minutes later, at about 10.50pm, the pair sprayed another victim with searing liquid on the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner in Islington. The victim was taken to hospital in north London.
At about 11.05pm, a further victim was attacked by two men on a moped on Shoreditch High Street, having liquid thrown in his face. His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
Within 15 minutes the attackers appear to have struck again, launching the corrosive substance at a man on Cazenove Road, causing “life-changing” injuries.
The final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic on Chatsworth Road. After again spraying the liquid in a victim’s face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.
The victim of the Queensbridge road attack was delivery driver Jabed Hussain. John Moody, 55, a black-cab driver who lives over the road from the site of the attack, said he was at home when he heard commotion outside at 10.25pm.
“There was a really frightening screaming,” he said.
The first people were on the scene within a minute and more were soon coming from all directions, he said, and some bought large bottles of water from a nearby shop.
“The first thing they did was remove his T-shirt ... they said very calmly, we are going to pour water into your eyes, you need to keep your eyes open.”
He said the victim seemed “absolutely petrified and beyond shock, the poor boy”.
He added: “As this was happening, more and more moped delivery drivers were turning up.” Moody estimated about 30 delivery drivers turned up within 20 minutes of the attack. “Two police were holding back the group of delivery drivers who were all in their helmets and all shouting,” he said.
Two delivery drivers told the Guardian the Queensbridge Rd victim was a delivery driver for Uber Eats or Deliveroo – people tend to work for both. A 24-year-old driver who asked not to be named said he had heard from other drivers that the Shoreditch victim was too.
He said there had been a spate of attacks in the Hackney area recently. “They hold you up with a knife and take your bike and phone,” said a 24-year-old driver, describing the area as a “danger zone”.
When drivers are attacked, “someone will WhatsApp and say help and everyone will rush around … it’s just to scare the boys off or help him (the victim) look for his bike.”
The spate of acid attacks had left him scared. “Normally we’re used to knives and drivers getting ripped off their bikes,” he said. A 25-year-old delivery driver said he now keeps the visor of his helmet closed. “I don’t open it until the customer sees me, because they come next to you at the traffic lights and throw acid in your face. If I lose my eyes what would I do?” he said. His wife had been pleading with him to stop working in the Hackney area.
A witness to the Hackney Road attack said she saw the police dousing the victim with water. Sarah Cobbold, 29, said she went out on to her balcony after seeing flashing lights outside her flat. She told the Press Association: “It was just outside my flat: the victim was literally stood on my doorstep.
“It was probably about 10.30pm. I saw some reports that it happened at 10.25pm so by 10.30pm there were a couple of police cars and an ambulance there … Police had cordoned off the little area around the pavement and there was just a guy standing in my doorway and they were pouring huge, five-litre bottles of water over his head.
“He was standing, he seemed to be OK. After probably about 10-15 minutes he managed to walk unaided into the ambulance.”
The Met said in a statement: “Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.”
The attacks come after a woman and her cousin were attacked with acid on her 21st birthday in Beckton, east London, in June. The woman, Resham Khan, launched an appeal from her hospital bed for a “zero-tolerance stance” on acid attacks. On Tuesday John Tomlin, 24, appeared before magistrates charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent in connection with the attack.
Dick addressed the rise in acid attacks during an LBC radio call-in on Friday morning. Such attacks occurred “incredibly infrequently” in the UK until recently, she said. “We are concerned, because the numbers appear to be going up.”
This month there were calls for restrictions on the sale of acid and other “noxious substances” after official data revealed the number of such attacks more than doubled over the last three years.
Dick said the police and Home Office were to examine restrictions, telling LBC’s Nick Ferrari it was currently “easier than you or I would think it ought to be” to buy highly corrosive substances over the counter. “Why on earth would a normal person need sulphuric acid, for example?” she asked.
In 2016 there were 455 crimes in London where a corrosive substance was used or threatened to be used. A quarter of these were street robberies.