The manhunt for Newcastle chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi has entered its fifth day as police offer a £20,000 reward for any information on his whereabouts.

Metropolitan Police officers have been searching for Ezedi, 35, since Wednesday after a 31-year-old woman suffered potentially life-changing injuries while her daughters, aged eight and three, were also hurt in the attack in Clapham.

The woman, who was known to Ezedi, remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition.

On Sunday, police said the suspect used a “very strong concentrated corrosive substance” in the attack.

Police investigators believe there are people who know Ezedi’s whereabouts and have not come forward.

The Met has warned anyone found assisting him will face arrest.

The force said the last sighting of Ezedi was at 9.33pm at Tower Hill Underground station in east London on January 31, shortly after the attack in Clapham.

Following the attack, questions have been raised over the suspect including his two failed attempts to stay in the UK as an asylum seeker and that he was allowed to remain in the UK despite being a convicted sex offender.

Police said Ezedi left Newcastle in the early hours of Wednesday and travelled south to London and was in the Tooting area by around 6.30am.

His vehicle was seen again in Croydon, south London, at around 4.30pm and by around 7pm he was in Streatham.


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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.