COPS are today searching the River Thames for the alleged Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi as it’s believed he “jumped and drowned” having crossed Chelsea Bridge.
Met Police think the 35-year-old suspect went into the water in West London on the night of the attack, having walked “with purpose” for a number of hours.
A police boat circled between Vauxhall and Chelsea bridges on Saturday morning.
CCTV footage shows him leaning over the bridge before he disappears out of sight, cops say.
Ezedi is wanted in connection with the dousing of a mum and her daughters with an alkaline substance on the night of January 31.
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He was last seen on Chelsea Bridge at 11.27pm, around four hours after the attack in Clapham, South London.
Ezedi was not seen leaving the bridge.
Officers said at a briefing on Friday that the search of the Thames would take place at low tide and involve boats from the Marine Policing Unit.
The force said at this time of year, the river was very fast flowing and full of snags and it was possible that Ezedi’s body may never surface.
Commander Jon Savell said officers had spent the last 24 hours "meticulously" following CCTV and their "main working hypothesis" was that Ezedi had gone into the water.
He said: "We have looked at all of the available cameras and angles, and with the assistance of Transport for London and CCTV from buses that were travelling over the bridge at the relevant time, and there is no sighting of him coming off the bridge.”
Cmdr Savell added that a marine support unit would also be "carrying out some searches of the Thames" where he was last seen.
He said that it was likely it would take “some time… for a person to surface and sadly, they may never actually be found".
Police have been in contact with a member of Ezedi’s family to “break that news” with them.
Det Supt Rick Sewart said death was the "most probable outcome" if Ezedi had gone into the water.
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Change in 'demeanour'
The Metropolitan Police said Clapham alkali attack suspect Ezedi's "demeanour" appeared to change as he walked over Chelsea Bridge.
Savell added: "When he gets to Chelsea Bridge, his demeanour appears to change.
"I would describe him previously as walking sort of purposefully, as if he knew where he was going and he was walking at a reasonable pace.
"As he gets onto Chelsea Bridge, he does cross the bridge more than once.
"And then when he gets back to the centre, he appears to be moving from the railings back to the pavement and looking over the edge of the railings.
"So a distinct change in how he's been moving about."
Two minutes later he was seen again on camera heading back to the north side of Chelsea Bridge.
It comes after cops said they thought Ezedi was “being helped by others” to evade capture and that their inquiries were targeting "more of Ezedi's associates" following the arrest of one man on suspicion of assisting an offender.
He was later bailed.
Chemical attack
Ezedi suffered a hideous wound to the right side of his face apparently sustained during the attack at 7.25pm.
He arranged to meet the 31-year-old woman after she had ended a relationship with him and drove down to London from his Newcastle home in a white Hyundai car.
When the woman and her children got into his car he flung a flask of the alkaline in her face causing horrific facial injuries.
She and her oldest daughter escaped from the vehicle and Ezedi then drove at her and crashed his car.
Ezedi fled on foot and took a tube from Clapham South to King’s Cross, North London, before heading back south again.
He got off at Tower Hill and CCTV showed him walking west by Southwark Bridge and on to Blackfriars where he was seen outside a Unilever building at 10.04pm.
He carried on walking west, his route hugging the Thames and he passed yards from New Scotland Yard before crossing over Westminster Bridge.
Horror injuries
Manhunt specialists from the Met’s counter terrorism fugitive teams then placed him 59 minutes later from CCTV on the north side of Vauxhall Bridge.
From there he continued walking west to Chelsea Bridge, where he is now thought to have jumped into the dark tidal waters.
At a news briefing on Wednesday Commander Savell said: “It is a possibility he has gone into the Thames.
“Sadly, we recover people from the Thames and it takes a while for it to happen.
“It is a very fast-flowing body of water. Nobody has seen anyone going into the Thames and no bodies have been recovered.”
He added that police were considering whether Ezedi ended up in the river “either deliberately or accidentally.”
Meanwhile, the mother wounded in the chemical attack remains in a “critical but stable” condition in hospital.
She has suffered life-changing injuries and doctors have said she may lose her right eye.
Her young daughters were also injured in the attack and are making progress.
