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Six hurt in 'acid attack' at Stratford Centre in London (UK)

B

Beefy

Member
Six people have been injured after a noxious substance was thrown at a shopping centre.

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after the incident at the Stratford Centre, opposite Westfield, in east London.

Three of the victims needed hospital treatment after being hit by the substance during an altercation involving two groups of males shortly before 8pm on Saturday.

Onlookers described seeing one young man screaming in pain as friends shouted "it is an acid attack, his skin is burning", while others rushed to clean their wounds with water.

Their injuries were not said to be life threatening or life changing.
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Source: http://news.sky.com/story/six-hurt-...-substance-at-westfield-in-stratford-11050889
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Fuck this shit. People that do this need locking up for a long time.
 
A

AoM

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
15 years old.

Pretty sick.



long history, leading to copycats.
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From the description of that Vice video, it doesn't seem that long. Or I guess I should there's been a recent increase.

"Since 2010 there have been 1,800 reported acid attacks in the London, with a steep 70% rise between 2015 to 2016."
 
P

PipefishUK

Banned
Hesemonni said:
You'll more likely get killed by traffic wherever you live than get acid attacked even in London.
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Yeah, 'two groups of males', it's obviously gang related and if you aren't in that world it's unlikely to affect you.

All this hype about acid attacks you'd think you were at risk just venturing down the street. It's just not like that.
 
K

Kareha

Member
Hilariously easy to buy this stuff over here, just walk into any supermarket and pick up a bottle of drain cleaner off the shelf.
 
I

indask8

Member
dc89 said:
Agreed. It probably needs some sort of restriction at this stage.
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Isn't it possible to flag every purchase, so if an acid attack happen you can see who bought some recently?

Also, you could see patterns, someone who buy a lot of drain cleaner / ingredients used for acid in a short amount of time is suspicious, or has a massive drain problem.
 
S

slider

Member
Westfield had a lot of stabbings that weren't widely reported when it first opened. Fair bit of gang activity there too obviously. Stratford New Town (which I think is what the LA housing is officially called) seems so innocuous at times. It's changed a fair bit from when I was a kid growing up there but there's obviously an undercurrent. Feels quite eclectic now and if I wasn't married with kids I'd be living there right now. East, East, East London.
 
T

twofoldd

Member
PipefishUK said:
Yeah, 'two groups of males', it's obviously gang related and if you aren't in that world it's unlikely to affect you.

All this hype about acid attacks you'd think you were at risk just venturing down the street. It's just not like that.
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Well, there is this case - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ice-corrosive-substances-latest-a7902796.html

A man had acid thrown in his face after he refused to buy cannabis from the attacker.

The victim, a 32-year-old man, was approached in Stratford, east London, by two men, in what is believed to have been an attempted robbery.

When he refused to purchase cannabis from the men he had a corrosive substance thrown on his face.
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Still, you're right - most of these attacks are gang related and the chance of being acid attacked is tiny, so there's little real point worrying it.
 
Y

yepyepyep

Member
I was working in Forest Gate near Stratford for a year. The borough of Newham has a problem with gang violence and has the largest incidences of acid attacks. A large majority of the attacks are between gang members rather than people of the public. It is a shame how young they are, a 15 and 18 year old got shot and died at Forest Gate about a month ago.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Their injuries were not said to be life threatening or life changing.
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...getting acid thrown on you making "the skin burn" seems like a pretty life changing event.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
AoM said:
"Since 2010 there have been 1,800 reported acid attacks in the London, with a steep 70% rise between 2015 to 2016."
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that number seems very high

I know that there are acid attacks in other cities and countries occasionally, but this does look like a London-specific phenomena
 
M

Makabe

Member
Wrestlemania said:
Pedestrians being injured of killed by cars happens every day in London. Time to move to the countryside.
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There's been a noticeable change in the types of crime committed in London over the past few years, there's plenty of large cities that don't have crime like this so saying move to the countryside is a weak argument.
 
W

Wrestlemania

Banned
Makabe said:
There's been a noticeable change in the types of crime committed in London over the past few years, there's plenty of large cities that don't have crime like this so saying move to the countryside is a weak argument.
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If you think the odds of you being injured or killed have changed significantly enough that you can’t live here, sure, live anywhere else.
 
Patrick S.

Patrick S.

Banned
It's the same here in Germany. You super rarely heard about murders, now there are new murder cases on the news basically every day. I looked up the statistic just the other day, and it's true. Society as a whole is getting much more violent.
 
blu

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Kareha said:
Hilariously easy to buy this stuff over here, just walk into any supermarket and pick up a bottle of drain cleaner off the shelf.
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That's normally not acid, though.
 
Marvel

Marvel

could never
You're not supposed to put water over some acids, can make the burns worse apparrently. Sick shit, why on earth a person would do this is beyond me.

Evil.
 
R

RedBullEnergy

Member
It's actually the worse kind of assault IMO. I genuinely think I'd rather be stabbed or shot than to a see someone squirt a corrosive acid in my face and feel it burn my skin off, living with such a disfigurement for the rest of my life and the social impact of that.

There is no place for it at all and I suspect the attackers feel it is a "less" of a crime than stabbing or shootings, which I imagine carry an attempted murder tag.

What is the classification of an acid attack? Wouldn't surprise me if it's some kind of light GBH charge.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
dc89 said:
Agreed. It probably needs some sort of restriction at this stage.
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he's 15 though he's probably nicked that off his mum the little cunt.

not sure how you prevent something like this when so many common products could do some damage.
 
O

Orbis

Member
Makabe said:
Happening almost every other day in London now, time to leave.
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Almost exclusively they are targeted attacks. Unless you have specific reason to believe you'll be targeted I'd say there's no reason to be making such drastic decisions.

RedBullEnergy said:
.
What is the classification of an acid attack? Wouldn't surprise me if it's some kind of light GBH charge.
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Yeah the guy charged yesterday was with GBH. I would propose a specific law is introduced though to deal with this trend, much like tough sentencing was brought in just for carrying a knife.
 
M

MicH

Member
Jesus, these attacks are frightening. I can't think of anything worse than getting acid thrown in your face.
 
M

Makabe

Member
Orbis said:
Almost exclusively they are targeted attacks. Unless you have specific reason to believe you'll be targeted I'd say there's no reason to be making such drastic decisions.
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Most are targeted, or gang related but there's been an increase in people using acid for just general muggings. Earlier in the week acid was used on a 75 year old man for his watch in Islington for example.
It's not the only reason I want to leave, but it certainly adds to it.
 
S

sammex

Member
Kareha said:
Hilariously easy to buy this stuff over here, just walk into any supermarket and pick up a bottle of drain cleaner off the shelf.
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dc89 said:
Agreed. It probably needs some sort of restriction at this stage.
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Government ignored expert advice and relaxed laws on sale of acids used in recent attacks

Tory ministers boasted of 'cutting red tape' as they relaxed regulations on selling dangerous acids - a change campaigners say could have made recent attacks more likely.

The Government ignored expert advice and made changes in 2015 that made it easier to buy dangerous acids that have been used in a spate of attacks in recent weeks, The Independent can reveal.

Changes made in the Deregulation Act 2015 scrapped an obligation on sellers of dangerous substances, including acids, to be registered with their local council. The move was opposed by medical experts, who warned that it could make it easier for criminals to get their hands on highly toxic substances, and by the Government’s own advisory board on the regulation of hazardous chemicals.
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There you go. The Gov actually made it easier for shops to sell these types of chemicals less than 2 years ago.

Not good is it?
 
M

MatrixMan.EXE

Member
PipefishUK said:
Yeah, 'two groups of males', it's obviously gang related and if you aren't in that world it's unlikely to affect you.

All this hype about acid attacks you'd think you were at risk just venturing down the street. It's just not like that.
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Goes to show that the media are truly experts at inciting moral panic.
 
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