Two women were injured by shotgun pellets after a moped rider dropped a firearm while being chased by police.
At 4.55pm on Friday, police officers in Clapham, south London, started chasing a moped with two people on it after it failed to stop.
One of the suspects dropped a shotgun, which discharged as it struck the ground.
Two women, aged 27 and 36, were hit by shotgun pellets and had to be taken to hospital.
Image: Pic: @siancole8
“They were not deliberately targeted,” the Met Police said, contradicting a previous statement that the shotgun was fired by one of the people riding the moped.
Moments before the gun fired, the moped collided with a 27-year-old man who had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
All three people who were injured had been discharged from hospital by Saturday afternoon, according to the Met.
The suspects fled and no arrests have been made.
The Met has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and its directorate of professional standards over the incident.
Image: Pic: @siancole8
DCI Gemma Alger, of the specialist crime unit, said: “Our investigation to identify the two people responsible is at an early stage, but we will be relentless in following up every line of inquiry to arrest them.
“The suspects fled the scene on foot. Crime scenes remain in place in St Alphonsus Road as forensic searches are ongoing at premises where the suspects made off through gardens.
“The shotgun was recovered from the scene and this will also be subject to forensic analysis.”
Anyone with any information, or evidence, including dashcam or CCTV footage should contact police, she added.
A moped rider being chased by police has fired shots, wounding three people in south London.
Two of them suffered shotgun pellet injuries while a third was hurt by the moped, but none are believed to be in a life-threatening condition.
Officers were pursuing the vehicle, being ridden by two people, after it failed to stop in the Clapham area just before 5pm on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Image: Pic: @siancole8
A firearm, believed to be a shotgun, was fired from the moped near Clapham Common South Side.
The suspects then fled the scene and officers are trying to trace the moped. No arrests have been made.
The London Ambulance Service said its crews had taken two people to a major trauma centre in the capital, while the third was treated in hospital.
Image: A forensic officer at the scene. Pic: PA
The Met said: “A crime scene is in place and urgent enquiries to trace the moped are ongoing. Firearms officers are searching the area.”
Several roads have been cordoned off.
Image: Police in the Clapham Common area. Pic: @siancole8
A local barber, who gave his name as Kaka, said he was left “shocked” after hearing shooting close to his shop near Clapham Common.
He said: “I was in the shop just before 5pm and I heard a gunshot up the road. We were all shocked because it was so close, the police were everywhere afterwards.”
A reward of up to £20,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of Clapham chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi, as police release new information about his movements.
Police have also released new information about the alkaline substance that was used for the attack – saying laboratory analysis shows it was either liquid sodium hydroxide or liquid sodium carbonate.
Investigators believe there are people who know the location of Ezedi who have not come forward.
They warned anyone found “harbouring or assisting him” will be arrested, as the search is now in its fifth day.
Ezedi, 35, has been urged by police to hand himself in after going on the run following the attack involving a corrosive alkaline substance in Clapham, southwest London, on Wednesday 31 January.
Twelve people were injured, including a mother, 31, and her two daughters, aged three and eight. All three remain in hospital, with the mother’s injuries thought to be “life-changing”.
Ezedi and the mother were in a relationship, a relative of the suspect has told Sky News.
Police have released CCTV images of Ezedi during the search which appear to show extensive injuries to the right side of his face.
Image: Abdul Shokoor Ezedi is seen on the London Underground network after the attack. Pic: Met Police
The Metropolitan Police said today that the last confirmed sighting of him is now at 9.33pm on the day of the attack, when he exited Tower Hill Underground station, on the eastern edge of the City of London.
He had changed trains at Victoria, after arriving at the Tube station on the Victoria Line at 9.10pm and departing on the eastbound District Line at 9.16pm.
The Met has said it is continuing to analyse CCTV footage alongside “many other lines of inquiry” as they attempt to locate Ezedi.
Image: Abdul Shokoor Ezedi.
Pic: PA
The force has released new video filmed at around 8.45pm showing him in a Tesco on Caledonian Road in north London shortly after the attack. The Met had earlier released images of him from the same visit to the supermarket.
The Met has said dozens of officers are working to trace Ezedi.
The force is also working with the Home Office, UK Border Force, UK Visas and Immigration, the National Crime Agency, British Transport Police and several other police forces.
Detectives may fear Ezedi has been smuggled out of the country
It’s a carrot-and-stick approach from the police – a big reward for information, but if you have it and you don’t give it to us you’ll be arrested.
Detectives are struggling and must have thought that after four days they would have found their suspect, a desperate man with the best-known facial blemish in Britain, an image that leaps out daily from newspapers and TV screens.
But how desperate is he? New CCTV footage shows him wandering nonchalantly around Tesco two hours after the chemical attack on the woman he was in a relationship with.
And maybe he isn’t having to fend for himself and is being harboured by contacts he has made in the past.
The manhunt has been joined by the National Crime Agency, whose core focus is on organised crime.
Police may fear Ezedi is getting help from the people who helped smuggle him into the UK from Afghanistan in the back of a lorry in 2016.
Met Commander Jon Savell said: “I am hugely grateful to the public for the significant number of calls that we have received.
“Your help is critical. A reward of up to £20,000 is now available for information leading to his arrest.
“I must warn anyone who is helping Ezedi to evade capture – if you are harbouring or assisting him then you will be arrested.
“Our inquiry line is staffed 24/7 by specialist detectives who are progressing enquiries around-the-clock.
“If you know where he is or have information that may assist call them now.”
Read more: How was convicted sex offender Ezedi granted asylum in the UK? Police hunting Clapham chemical attack suspect raid ‘brother’s home’
Image: Officers have found containers with corrosive warnings on at an address in Newcastle. Pic: Northumbria Police
Image: Ezedi at King’s Cross station after the attack. Pic: Met Police
On Saturday, police said officers have searched five addresses – two in east London and three in Newcastle – in their efforts to locate Ezedi.
Police bodycam footage showed officers entering a flat in Newcastle where empty containers with corrosive warnings were found.
A laboratory has now carried out analysis of the substance found at the scene of the attack.
Commander Savell said on Sunday: “The liquid used in the attack was a very strong concentrated corrosive substance, either liquid sodium hydroxide or liquid sodium carbonate.
“Further enquiries are ongoing including comparison with the containers seized from Ezedi’s address in Newcastle.”
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0:25
Police search for chemical attack suspect
The attack has raised questions about the asylum process in the UK, with Ezedi having arrived in the UK on a lorry in 2016 after fleeing Afghanistan.
After two failed attempts, his asylum claim to stay in the UK was granted in 2020.
This was despite the fact he was handed a suspended sentence for a sexual offence in November 2018.
Ezedi was allowed to stay in the country after a priest confirmed he had converted to Christianity and had said he was “wholly committed” to his new religion, Sky News understands.
An asylum seeker can claim asylum in the UK on the basis of religious persecution in their native country.
A manhunt is continuing for the suspect in the Clapham chemical attack amid reports he was granted asylum after being convicted of a sexual assault.
Abdul Shokoor Ezedi is believed to have targeted a mother and two children with an alkaline substance in Clapham, south London, on Wednesday evening.
Sky News understands Ezedi was handed a suspended sentence for a sexual offence in Newcastle in 2018, and was discharged from probation supervision in 2020.
The latest development comes after police issued another photo of the former asylum seeker, who only had his application granted on his third attempt after arriving in the UK by lorry in 2016.
Clapham chemical attack latest: Suspect pictured with facial injuries
Sky News understands Ezedi, 35, was allowed to stay after a priest vouched for his conversion to Christianity, saying he was “wholly committed” to his new religion.
Ezedi had claimed his life would be in danger if he returned to his native Afghanistan.
On Thursday evening, Superintendent Gabriel Cameron said the new image, taken at 8.48pm on Wednesday, was of the last-known sighting of Ezedi in Caledonian Road, north London, and was less than two hours after the assault.
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How did Clapham chemical attack unfold?
“The image shows Ezedi with what appears to be significant injuries to the right side of his face. This makes him distinctive.
“If you see Ezedi, call 999 immediately. He should NOT be approached.”
The suspect, from Newcastle, is believed to have travelled down to London on the same day as the attack near Clapham Common.
Both Northumbria Police and the British Transport Police are helping the Met with the manhunt.
Image: Pic: James Weech/PA Wire
Officers have also confirmed a car involved in the attack belonged to Ezedi, while the substance used in the attack was alkaline.
A 31-year-old mother and her three-year-old daughter, alongside her other daughter, aged eight, remain in hospital following the incident.
The mother and the younger child may have suffered life-changing injuries, according to police.
Officers said the suspect was known to the woman and described the attack as “targeted”.
A total of 12 people were hurt during the incident, including the mother and her two children, and five officers who were injured as they responded.
Officers say Ezedi attempted to make off from the scene in a car following the incident, but crashed with another vehicle, and then made off on foot in the direction of Clapham Common.
One witness, who asked to remain anonymous, told Sky News: “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.”
