Stratford 'acid attack': Six people injured near shopping centre in east London

Six people were injured in an apparent mass acid attack in Stratford, east London.

Police were called to the Stratford Centre in the borough of Newham just before 8pm, a Metropolitan Police spokesman told The Independent.

The force said a “group of males” was reported as having sprayed “what is believed to be a noxious substance” and eight victims were injured in a number of locations.

One person has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm, it said.

Witnesses at the scene said an argument broke out among a group of people in the Stratford Centre, which is a much smaller shopping mall than its sprawling neighbour, the Westfield Centre.

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’s toilets “to wash acid off his face”.

He said: “There were cuts around his eyes and he was trying to chuck water into them.”