Police are looking for a gang who sprayed acid in three teenagers’ faces before punching them to the ground and leaving one with a fractured skull.
The victims were walking down the street shortly after midnight when they were confronted by a gang of youths, whom police say were “trying to pick a fight”.
The two 18-year-olds and one 17-year-old did not engage with the group, but one of the suspects squirted a noxious substance from a sports bottle into their faces.
A number of the suspects then punched the teenage victims before running away.
Two of the victims were taken to hospital for treatment after the incident, which occurred on Saturday June 17. at around 12.30am.
The most severely injured of the victims, an 18-year-old male, was not discharged from hospital until June 30. He suffered a fracture to the skull and is receiving ongoing treatment to his eye as a result of the noxious substance used.
Meanwhile a man suffered severe burns after being squirted with acid as he walked with a woman in east London.
Police say they are hunting three youths who attacked the 27-year-old man as he walked, pushing his bicycle, with the 40-year-old woman in Mile End last Wednesday.
The acid is believed to have caught the woman’s clothing but she escaped serious injury after turning her face away at the last minute, according to witnesses.
The man remains in hospital but his injuries are not life-threatening. There have been no arrests. The attack took place at 2am in Burdett Road.
Across London, the number of acid attacks has risen from 186 between April 2014 and March 2015 to 397 in the same period in 2016-2017.
Most of the victims were male and all were under 40-years-old, with the majority being in their twenties.
