Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi is thought to be dead, the Metropolitan Police has said.
The 35-year-old injured a mother and two daughters in a horrific corrosive substance attack in Clapham last month, with police locked in a thorough search for the attacker since January 31.
Today, Scotland Yard said their “main working hypothesis” was that the man had gone into the water as the search for Ezedi continued into its tenth day.
The latest available imagery shows the attacker pausing halfway across Chelsea Bridge, just north of where he had been seen in footage released yesterday, and he can be seen to “lean over the railings” – after that, Ezedi is no longer visible.
Abdul Ezedi is suspected of attacking a mother and her two children in January with an alkaline substance in Clapham, LondonMetropolitan PoliceIn a briefing at Scotland Yard, Detective Superintendent Rick Sewart said: “We’ve tracked Ezedi’s movements from the Tower Hill area where he alighted the underground and he’s walked over four miles to the location of Chelsea Bridge.
“He’s walked with purpose, but has essentially hugged the Thames River line.
“When he has got to the area of Chelsea Bridge, his behaviour visibly appears to change in so much as he walked up and down the bridge – he pauses in the midpoint of the bridge, halfway down the bridge.
“Then he walked to and from the side of the bridge and can be seen to sort of lean over the railings before there is a loss of sight.”
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The footage is consistent with the man jumping into the water, but police said they could not definitively confirm this.
Despite confirming there was no sighting of him actually coming off the bridge, police said that he “may not resurface” if he had ended up in the river.
They said they were “working with our experts in the marine units” who are experts in “people ending up in the Thames”.
Police released a timeline of events yesterday which tracked Ezedi's whereabouts up to 11.30pm on the night of the attack, and had “meticulously” followed his movements – including a raid on addresses linked with the man in Newcastle.
Abdul Ezedi, the suspected chemical attacker, was last spotted in South LondonPA/Met PoliceThe Met said they were working with TfL to look at CCTV evidence, including buses which may have gone past his known locations.
The service said they had released all the CCTV footage that they had so far and had received 500 calls into hotlines and 1,000 pieces of information from sources including members of the public.
The 35-year-old Christian convert was convicted of two sexual offences in Newcastle in 2018 prior to being granted asylum in the UK.
Anyone can speak to a police investigation team via their hotline on 020 7175 2784, and the service requested that any immediate sightings should prompt a 999 call.