Alkali attack suspect Abdul Ezedi has most likely jumped into the River Thames and died, the Metropolitan Police said on Friday.
The force said officers are searching for his body, but it may never be found because of the fast currents of the river.
“Detectives leading the manhunt for wanted Abdul Ezedi now believe he went into the River Thames at Chelsea Bridge,” the Met said on Friday in a statement.
Police have hunted Ezedi, 35, since Jan. 31 following an alkali attack on that evening which seriously injured his 31-year-old ex-girlfriend, her three-year-old daughter, and Ezedi himself.
The women’s eight-year-old daughter, four members of the public, and five police officers also suffered some injuries.
By Thursday, the Met had tracked Ezedi to Battersea Park by trawling CCTV footage.
After examining more footage from the area including those from passing buses, Met Police Commander Jon Savell said on Friday that Ezedi was lost from sight at the bridge.
“The last 24 hours we have meticulously been viewing all of the available CCTV in and around the Chelsea Bridge area. And we’ve also worked with Transport for London in accessing the CCTV from their buses. It is our now main working theory that Ezedi has actually gone into the Thames from Chelsea Bridge. All of our work thus far has not seen him come off the bridge,” he said at a press briefing.
“Our Marine Support Unit will be carrying out some searches of the Thames. But as you can imagine, at this time of year, the Thames is very fast flowing. And our expertise, and the experts from the oceanography departments that are supporting us would indicate that it may be some time, if someone has gone in the water at this time a year, for a person to surface. And sadly, they may never actually be found,” he said.
According to Mr. Savell, CCTV footage shows a change in Ezedi’s behaviour at the bridge.
“He is a man who had just carried out the most horrific attack, and was suffering from significant injuries himself which must have been causing him an extraordinary amount of pain, he said in a statement.
“It is just over four miles from Tower Hill, where he was seen leaving the tube station, to Chelsea Bridge. He walks purposefully. Halfway across Chelsea Bridge he pauses and paces back and forth towards the railings, as well as looking over them. This is a change in behaviour. Then he is lost from sight,” he said.
The police commander also said the investigation remains active.
“So CCTV was a very key line of inquiry, but there were other inquiries we were making. And we need to button those out to be as short as we can about what happened that night and what happened after he fled the scene,” he told Sky News.
According to the Met, Ezedi, a resident of New Castle, drove to London in the morning on Jan. 31, and allegedly carried out the attack at around 7:25 p.m., which resulted in “life-changing” injuries for the woman attacked and her younger daughter.
He then drove away, before crashing his car soon, and taking a number of train journeys that ended at Tower Hill Tube Station.
Ezedi, reportedly born in Afghanistan, came to the UK hidden in a lorry in 2016 and was turned down twice for asylum before successfully appealing against the Home Office rejection by claiming he had converted to Christianity.
He was convicted of two sexual offences in 2018 but was allowed to stay in the UK because his crimes were not serious enough to meet the threshold for deportation.
A tribunal judge is understood to have ruled in favour of his asylum claim in 2020 after a retired Baptist church minister confirmed he had converted to Christianity, reportedly describing Ezedi as “wholly committed” to his new religion.
Ezedi, who is not the father of the children who were hurt, suffered significant facial injuries in the incident which police previously said could prove fatal if left untreated.
