UK police say a woman attacked with chemicals is doing 'very poorly.' The suspect is still at large

LONDON — Authorities in Britain searched nationwide Friday for a suspect still at large two days after a chemical attack in London left a woman hospitalized with life-changing injuries and also injured her two young daughters.

Metropolitan Police Commander Jon Savell said Friday that the woman is doing “very poorly" following the attack with a corrosive substance, but that the children weren’t as seriously injured as originally thought.

Savell asked for the public’s help in finding the suspect, identified as Abdul Ezedi, 35, who also suffered significant injuries to the right side of his face. He urged him to turn himself in.

British media reported that Ezedi is an Afghan refugee who was granted asylum even after he was convicted of a sex offense in Britain in 2018. Ezedi's asylum application was initially rejected, but he was later given permission to remain in the U.K. after claiming that he had converted to Christianity and would be persecuted if he returned to Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

Police said a large team of detectives is involved in the manhunt, with search warrants executed in east London and the northern city of Newcastle, where Ezedi is from.