Police have warned that an Afghan asylum seeker suspected of carrying out a chemical attack on a woman and her two daughters may already be dead.
Abdul Ezedi was seen on CCTV near Southwark Bridge two hours after attacking a 31-year-old woman and her two children, aged three and eight, with an alkaline substance before attempting to run them over.
The injured woman, who is known to Ezedi, is in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
The last known sighting of the 35-year-old was on Southwark Bridge at 9.50pm on Wednesday after he left Tower Hill Tube station and crossed the river, detectives said.
Scotland Yard revealed on Monday that a 23-year-old man had been arrested and released on bail on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Commander Jon Savell said that Ezedi could have come to harm.
He said: “I think it is realistic to understand that the fact no one has seen him recently and he has not been spotted by anyone either means he has come to harm and is yet to be found, or someone is looking after him and he has not been outside for some time. Those are the obvious two hypotheses.”
The attack – carried out with a corrosive substance – took place on Lessar Avenue, Clapham at 7.25pm on Wednesday, January 31.
The woman, 31, is said to have experienced life changing injuries while her daughters suffered injuries not “as serious as first thought”.
He allegedly fleed the scene using the Tube network with his bank card, with police offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Det Supt Rick Sewart said the investigation had been made more difficult by the fact Ezedi did not have his phone with him.
He said: “It is always more difficult to crack a manhunt when [the suspect] doesn’t have their mobile phone on them.
“If we are in a situation whereby he is being held at one specific address, that clearly could last for several weeks if he is being fed and watered by somebody and wants to lie low.”
The Met’s Cdr Jon Savell said a laboratory analysis of the substance from the attack site found it was a “very strong concentrated corrosive substance, either liquid sodium hydroxide or liquid sodium carbonate”.
