Acid attacks growing more common across Europe

Show Caption Hide Caption American women attacked with acid Police say four young female U.S. tourists were attacked with acid Sunday in Marseille, France by a woman who has been arrested.

Acid attacks, similar to the one injuring four U.S. women Sunday at a French train station, are escalating across Europe, and authorities are concerned that corrosive substances may become more of a “weapon of choice” for potential terrorist attacks.

Sunday's attack in Marseille against four Boston College students studying abroad is not being considered a terrorist attack, French authorities said. The female suspect, 41, has a history of mental health problems and was arrested at the scene.

Boston College said the students are all juniors. “It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns,” said Nick Gozik, director of the college's Office of International Programs.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said its counter-terrorism division, which has responsibility for all terror-related incidents in France, had not assumed jurisdiction for the attack.

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But police and academic researchers say acid-related attacks — many involving terrorism — are spreading across Europe and have occurred recently in the United States. Toxic substances, including drain cleaner, are used as weapons more frequently partly as a result of a crackdown on guns and knives overseas in recent years.

An assault in east London this year at the Mangle nightclub left two people blind in one eye from what police called a "corrosive fluid." Witnesses said the attack followed a fight in the club.

In April, police in Manchester in northern England, said a pregnant woman and a man suffered "severe discomfort" when someone threw bleach in their eyes from a passing car.

Assaults involving corrosive substances have more than doubled in England since 2012, according to police data obtained by the British Broadcasting Company.

The vast majority of attacks were in London, with at least 208 since 2016. The data show that at least 38 of those incidents have caused serious injuries, and at least one was fatal.

The attacks have become so acute that advocates of some victims have called on the British Parliament to make it illegal to purchase strong acid products without a license.

Other acid incidents have been reported in Berlin and in Italy, where a former Miss Italy finalist was reportedly attacked by a former boyfriend.

In the U.S., two women were attacked just a week apart in 2010 in separate incidents in Mesa, Ariz., and Vancouver, Wash.

In England, acid attacks have been rising as a percent of all violent attacks, but the actual number of incidents was “tiny” compared to attacks with other weapons, according to Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Kearton, who is the National Police Chiefs Council lead for corrosive attacks.

Simon Harding, a criminologist and expert on gangs at London’s Middlesex University, told the BBC that acid is becoming "a weapon of first choice."

"Acid throwing is a way of showing dominance, power and control ... building enormous fear among gang peer groups," he said.

Harding noted that gang members know charges against them may not be as serious in an acid-throwing incident, as opposed to other weapons, and that acid-throwing cases are harder to prosecute because there’s rarely DNA evidence.