Abdul Ezed: Search for chemical attack suspect highlights grisly job of police divers

The search for a suspect in a London chemical attack has highlighted the scale of the grisly task facing the city’s 70-strong marine policing unit (MPU). The manhunt for Abdul Ezed was launched after a mother and her two children, aged three and eight, were badly injured after being attacked with a corrosive substance. The 35-year-old suspect, who was visibly injured, was last seen crossing Chelsea Bridge on 31 January. Police believe he later entered the river. A search of the river yielded two bodies in quick succession — neither of them Mr Ezed. One was found near HMS Belfast at 10:13am on Saturday; the other in Limehouse at 10:39am. Both deaths are being treated as “unexpected pending further enquiries”. One was reportedly spotted by a ship’s captain who then called the emergency services. The MPU typically recovers 30 bodies from the 47-mile stretch of the Thames under their remit per year, The Guardian reports, but across the Thames’s full 213-mile course, an average of one body a week washes up. The search for Ezed goes on.