Clapham attack: Video and images released from search for Abdul Shokoor Ezedi

Police hunting for the suspect in a chemical attack on a mother and her daughters in Clapham have released video and images from the search.

Officers have now searched five properties in London and Newcastle in the hunt for Abdul Shokoor Ezedi.

Police pictures show empty containers with corrosive warning labels found during one search.

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

Dozens of calls have been received by the Met Police following its appeal over the attack with a corrosive substance on Wednesday night, which left the woman and her two daughters injured, as well as members of the public and police officers who came to their aid.

The mother, 31, is said to have experienced life-changing injuries while her daughters, aged three and eight, suffered injuries not “as serious as first thought”.

Searches have taken place at two addresses in east London and three in Newcastle.

Forensic tests are ongoing to determine if two containers found in Newcastle held the corrosive substance used during the attack.

Police are trying to piece together the suspect’s movements after he was captured by CCTV at King’s Cross underground station on Wednesday night, where he was seen boarding a Victoria line train heading southbound at 21:00 GMT.

On Friday afternoon, Metropolitan Police Cdr Jon Savell called on the 35-year-old man – who has significant injuries to the right side of his face – to come forward.

The wanted man left the Newcastle area in the early hours before travelling down to the capital, where the attack happened in Lessar Avenue, Clapham, at 19:25 on Wednesday.

Three women and a man attempted to stop the attacker as he fled the scene. He tried to leave in a car, but he collided with a parked vehicle and then ran on foot towards Clapham Common.

Three members of the public, who came to the aid of the family, have all been discharged from hospital with minor burns.

Five officers who attended the attack were treated and have now left hospital.

The BBC has confirmed that Ezedi, who is believed to have travelled on a lorry from Afghanistan in 2016, was convicted of a sexual offence in 2018.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said he was sentenced on 9 January 2018 after pleading guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one of exposure.

He was given a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court and put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

Ezedi was later granted asylum after two failed attempts. He was allowed to stay in the country after a priest confirmed he had converted to Christianity.

An asylum seeker can claim asylum in the UK if they fear religious persecution in their native country.

It is not yet known which Christian denomination supported Ezedi’s claim.

The Catholic Church in the North East confirmed he was part of a justice and peace charitable project, but has yet to confirm whether he was helped in other ways.

The BBC has spoken to the owner of a supermarket in Byker, Newcastle, who said he saw Ezedi in his shop on Tuesday.

“He seemed normal and relaxed and in general was always respectful and polite. He worked six or seven days in a pizza shop behind the counter,” the shop owner called Yaya said.

“I was shocked. He was working hard. In the two years I knew him he never drank.

“A few months ago he said he was working hard to go back to Afghanistan to get married to a woman and bring her back to the UK, because he was tired of being single.”