A 16-year-old boy has been charged by police investigating five linked acid attacks in London.
The teenager is charged with 15 offences including grievous bodily harm and possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance, the Metropolitan police said. He has been remanded in custody to appear before Stratford youth court on Monday.
Five acid attacks took place in north and east London in less than 90 minutes on Thursday night.
Police said the teenager has been charged with one count of GBH with intent, one count of possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance, three counts of robbery, one count of handling stolen goods, four counts of attempted robbery and five counts of attempted GBH with intent.
Earlier on Saturday, a 15-year-old boy who was arrested at an address in Stoke Newington, north London, on Friday morning on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery was released on bail until a date in early August.
Scotland Yard said the investigation into the attacks is continuing.
Five men – all on mopeds – were allegedly targeted by two moped-riding attackers.
Food delivery rider Jabed Hussain, 32, who works for UberEats, had his moped stolen and his face sprayed with liquid. He was the victim of the night’s first attack at about 10.25pm at traffic lights on Hackney Road, east London, on his way home from work.
Hussain told the Guardian that the area had been the scene of many knife and other violent attacks on delivery drivers in recent months. “First of all, I didn’t realise it was acid; then it started to burn. I saw they wanted to do it again, so I jumped off my bike and tried to hide from them behind cars,” Hussain said.
After his moped was stolen, Hussain ran up to cars stopped at the traffic lights, knocked on windows and begged for help. “I was screaming for help and for water. No one was opening their door or window.”
A female passerby stopped to help Hussain, who was taken to an east London hospital. His injuries are not being treated as life-changing.
“I’m too scared to go back to work,” he told the Press Association. “I’m really scared. I don’t know what to do. My wife, she’s scared. My family’s scared. They were asking me to leave that job, but I love that job.”
Little more than 20 minutes after the first attack, at 10.49pm, a 44-year-old moped driver was sprayed with a searing liquid at the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner in Islington, north London.
The victim was taken to a hospital in north London. His vehicle was not stolen.
Then at about 11.05pm, police were called after attackers targeted a man in Shoreditch High Street, east London, tossing a substance in his face.
His injuries were not life-threatening and his moped was not stolen, police said.
Within 15 minutes, a corrosive substance was hurled at a man on Upper Clapton Road, causing “life-changing” facial injuries.
Police were called to the scene at 11.18pm. The final assault was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic in Chatsworth Road. Liquid was sprayed in his face and his moped was stolen by the attackers, who then fled.