Acid attacks have soared to record levels in London, with some of those injured under the age of 10, the Standard can reveal today.

The number of violent corrosive liquid offences surged from 66 in 2012 to 752 last year, according to new statistics from the Metropolitan Police. There has been a sharp rise in attacks in recent years with 616 recorded in 2017, up from 461 the previous year, 348 in 2015, 178 in 2014 and 159 in 2013.

Seventeen attacks have been carried out on children under 10, the 2012 to 2018 figures also show. They are known to include a two-year-old boy who suffered burns to his face when acid was thrown while he was in his pushchair near his Islington home in April 2017. His mother, then 36, and father, 40, who had been taking the toddler for a walk, were also hurt. Nobody has ever been arrested over the attack.

One of Britain’s leading criminologists said: “London has sadly become the acid attack hotspot in the western world.”

Dr Simon Harding, associate professor in Criminology at the University of West London, said criminals had turned to acid because it is cheap, easily available and instils fear in both rivals and the public.

He said: “The rise in these attacks relate to a surge in knife crime in 2017 and 2018. Carrying bleach moved away from being a weapon of last resort, where it was used to target someone you truly hated.

“It became a casual thing and for some that meant it became a weapon of first resort. Some of them look at violence like a video game and acid takes them to the next level in the game.

"It can be used in robberies, burglaries, revenge attacks, during thefts of mopeds or to intimidate witnesses.”

The analysis of data, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, also revealed that domestic violence and religious or racial hatred were among the motivations for attacks. Newham topped the list of 32 boroughs with the highest number of acid attacks between January 2015 and December 2018.

There were 316 in Newham, compared with second-placed Barking and Dagenham (146), then Tower Hamlets (113), Hackney (91) and Redbridge (88).

Among the attacks carried out during the timeframe was when Arthur Collins — the ex-boyfriend of The Only Way Is Essex star Ferne McCann — hurled acid across a packed Dalston nightclub in April 2017. He is now serving 20 years for the attack which injured 22 people.

Robbers Antoine Mensah, 21, Miracle Osondu, 19, and Mohammed Ali, 17, maimed people with acid and alkaline in a series of attacks to steal items they were advertising on Gumtree. They were jailed for a total of 32 years last September. Earlier this month fraudster Jovan Stanley was jailed for three years for hurling ammonia at a police officer trying to arrest him after a spending spree. In November, it became a criminal offence for the public to possess sulphuric acid above 15 per cent concentration without a licence. Offenders face a two-year prison sentence and unlimited fines.

Provisions in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, when implemented, will ban the sale of corrosive substances to under-18s and give police extra powers to stop and search those suspected of carrying acid. But former delivery rider Jabed Hussain, 36, who had acid sprayed in his face by two robbers trying to steal his bike in Hackney in 2017, said: “More needs to be done. The legislation is feeble and the criminals are smarter than the law.”

Today Scotland Yard said it would not tolerate attacks and had adopted new measures to deal with the aftermath of an incident. The Met is working with the Home Office, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to target offenders through intelligence.

Officers are also working with the Crown Prosecution Service to increase the number of convictions. The Met said the scale of attacks had now reduced despite last year’s record total. Figures for 2019 are not yet available. Detective Superintendent Mike West, who leads the Met’s response to acid violence, said: “We will not tolerate any violent attack, including those using a corrosive substance, which we treat with an equal response to that of knife and gun crime.”

The Home Office said: “The [2019] Act will also give extra powers to police to stop and search those they suspect of carrying acid.”

Acid attacks in capital