The attack focused around the 1970s shopping mall, the Stratford Centre, which is next to the bus station and a walk through to the Tube station.

Witnesses at the scene said an argument broke out among a group of people.

A man who gave his name as Hossen, 28, a Burger King assistant manager, said he saw a victim and his friend, a known local homeless man, run into the fast food outlet bathroom "to wash acid off his face".