London Police Now Believes it May Have Located Chemical Attack Migrant

Alleged chemical attacker Abdul Shokoor Ezedi vanished in London last month despite the city being one of the most heavily camera-covered on earth: weeks later, police think they may have found his body.

12 people were injured, including a mother and her children, in a chemical attack in London on January 31st, prompting a major manhunt for primary suspect Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, an Afghan migrant “Christian convert” later portrayed as a “good Muslim” who may have gamed the migration system by claiming a change of faith. Police released details of their search for Ezedi slowly, stating first he’d been last seen at a north London railway station, then days later saying he’d been seen in East London, and then later still revealing he’d walked past the front door of Britain’s international spy agency headquarters before vanishing nearby.

The fact it had taken so long to get to this point, despite London being one of the most heavily surveilled cities on earth, raised questions of its own. Yet by this point the fact the injured Ezedi had vanished so close to the River Thames saw police move to the theory he had drowned himself. Searching the river turned up two “unexpected” bodies reasonably quickly last week, but Ezedi continued to elude the authorities.

Now police say they “strongly believe” they have found Ezedi in the Thames. Making a formal identification is difficult, they say, because the amount of time the body has spent in the water means visual or fingerprint checking is not possible, but they intend to attempt DNA testing and dental records with the Coroner’s office. Commander Jon Savell said on Tuesday Ezedi had been identified based on the “distinctive clothing” he had been wearing at the time of presumed death.

Police say the body was found around four o’clock Monday afternoon after “the crew of a passing boat reported they had seen a body in the water at Tower Pier EC3”. The Tower pier is directly below the Tower of London fortification, opposite the moored Second World War era warship HMS Belfast and only slightly upriver from the world-famous Tower Bridge.