A 31-year-old woman and her three-year-old daughter have sustained potentially life-changing injuries after an attack with an alkaline corrosive substance in south London.
The attack in Clapham on Wednesday evening also injured an eight-year-old girl, the Metropolitan police said. Police are understood to have a probable identity for the attacker, who they believe was known to the victims.
A hunt for the suspect is under way and police are urgently trying to establish his associates and anyone who may help shelter him. Detectives are also checking police databases to see what is known about him, and other forces have been alerted to be on the lookout, in case he tries to flee London.
The Met police commissioner, Mark Rowley, told BBC Radio London on Thursday morning that it was “a ghastly attack” and that a “live manhunt” was under way. He said: “Everything we know at the moment points to this being two people who know each other, it’s not random.”
He added: “Fortunately, attacks using acid and chemicals are exceedingly rare. We did have a spate of them two or three years ago, you might remember. It’s not something we’ve seen much of at all recently, I’m pleased to say.
Witnesses described a “horrific” scene after the woman and her two daughters were attacked.
A woman said she rescued the three-year-old girl after she was “thrown from a car”. Shannon Christi said she heard a bang and someone shouting for help in the street, and ran outside from her flat which overlooked the scene.
She said she helped a girl, who told her she was three, and tried to help her older sister.
Christi, a bus driver, said the attacker was wearing black clothes and that she felt he “definitely” knew the victims.
“I heard a bang and I heard someone saying: ‘Help,’” she said. “I run outside and as I run outside I’ve seen this guy throwing a child on the floor, he picked her up and threw her again. So at that point I ran in and I grabbed her and took her into my block.”
Emergency services were called to Lessar Avenue in Clapham at about 7.25pm. The victims were taken to hospital along with passersby and police officers who were injured as they tried to help.
Three women – two in their 30s and one in her 50s – who came to the aid of the family have since been discharged with minor burns injuries. Five police officers who were injured have all been treated and left hospital. A man in his 50s who also helped, received minor injuries but declined hospital treatment.
One couple who ran into the street after hearing a cry for help and the sound of a car crashing described what they saw to the BBC.
“We came outside and saw this guy and he took a girl out of the car and he slammed her to the ground twice,” a man who wished to remain anonymous said. “I chased him halfway down the road, but I was in slippers so didn’t get very far. As I came back, that’s when I saw the woman who had been attacked.
“So I ran inside to get some water and just sprayed her down with water. It was quite horrific.”
Commenting on the family’s injuries, Supt Gabriel Cameron said: “While none of their conditions are life-threatening, the injuries to the woman and younger girl could be life-changing. It may be some time before hospital staff are able to say how serious that might be.”
Cameron added: “It was reported that a man had thrown a child to the ground and that a substance – which we now know to be alkaline – had been thrown. The man attempted to make off in a car but collided with a stationary vehicle, and then made off on foot, in the direction of Clapham Common.
“We believe the man and woman are known to each other. Our investigation is in its early stages and we are working to establish why this awful incident has happened.”
One woman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The mum was saying: ‘I can’t see, I can’t see … so I shouted to my partner to get a bottle of water.”
A man was seen fleeing the area and police used helicopters in the search. An abandoned white hatchback with its doors open was visible behind the police cordon on Wednesday evening.
A local Labour councillor, Alison Inglis-Jones, said the emergency services had arrived on the scene quickly. She told Today that the ward was “one of the safest in Lambeth, so we are horrified at what has happened”. Inglis-Jones said the perpetrator had not yet been arrested and urged anyone with information to call 999.
A witness told Sky News: “There was a man in a white car with two children. It looked like he tried to run over a woman. They had been fighting.
“One girl in the back had her hand on the window – you can see the mark on the car. 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.”
