A paramedic has spoken of her ordeal after being sprayed with a noxious substance in what she feared was the latest in London’s recent spate of acid attacks.

The 32-year-old paramedic, who was has not been named, was working on her own in an ambulance car, responding to a call about a man suffering chest pains. On her way she was flagged down at about 1.30am on Sunday by three men in Tottenham.

When she stopped, the men covered their faces before one of them, who was wearing latex gloves, threw the contents of a bottle through the ambulance window on to her face, neck and chest. London ambulance service said the unidentified liquid was noxious and caused irritation, but was not acid. The paramedic was taken to hospital as a precaution.

“It was terrifying,” she said in a statement issued by the London ambulance service. “It all happened very quickly – one of them threw liquid out of a plastic bottle at me. The window was only open a few inches but the liquid went on my face, neck and chest. He was wearing latex gloves, so my first thought was, is this acid?”

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She said the incident had shaken her confidence in the public. “They have taken away my trust. What they’ve done is horrific in so many ways. It was premeditated and it delayed a patient getting treatment. It took a paramedic off the road that night. And yet if one my attackers were hurt, I would still treat them because that is the job.”

The paramedic and the ambulance service are working with the police to identify the attackers. The Metropolitan police confirmed they had received a report of common assault attack.

Peter Rhodes, the assistant director of operations at the London ambulance service, said: “I am appalled by this attack on our paramedic who stopped to help these men who she believed were in trouble, but instead they assaulted her in a premeditated attack, not only harming her but delaying treatment to a potentially critically ill patient.”

All frontline ambulance crews in London are being reminded of the need to be cautious when flagged down by anyone requesting help or assistance.



The incident came after five people were assaulted in north and east London in less than 90 minutes on Thursday night. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with 15 offences, including grievous bodily harm and possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance.