Acid attacks are on the rise in London. The Metropolitan police registered 458 offences involving noxious or corrosive liquids or the throwing of corrosive fluids with intent to do grievous bodily harm for last year. From January 2015 to April 2017 the police force recorded 833 attacks that fell into this category. Most occurred in the London Borough of Newham, followed by Barking and Dagenham and Tower Hamlets.

The Met points out that there is not one specific offence for ‘acid attacks’, so the numbers are based on offences that had the feature code ‘Noxious/Corrosive Liquid’ or any offence with an code called ‘Causing explosions, sending explosive substance or throwing corrosive fluids with intent to do grievous bodily harm.’ “Each individual record would have to be read to determine the exact nature of the corrosive fluid and how it was used in the attack (e.g. was it thrown? etc.),” the relevant document states.

source: statista