The frequency of assaults using acid — London is now officially the world capital of reported acid attacks — has stopped deliveries in certain London areas at night.
One delivery driver told the British tabloid, The Sun: “We used to work till 2am – now people are stopping before 10pm. After 8pm or 9pm, we’re not going to those dangerous places.”
Criminologists believe gang members may be swapping guns and knives for acid as a weapon of choice because possession is hard to monitor.
The areas too dangerous to work include Hackney and Stoke Newington, all “ethnically diverse”, where only 36 percent of residents describe themselves as white British.
Also included is Bethnal Green, a part of London which lies in the corruption-plagued, Islamist-dominated borough of Tower Hamlets.
The number of cases more than doubled from less than 200 in 2014 to 431 in 2016, according to Scotland Yard.
In East London, Newham had three times more acid attacks than the next highest borough, with almost 400 of London’s 1 500 reports over the last five years occuring there.
Newham is also the London borough with the second highest percentage of Muslims in the UK. Some 398 acid attacks occurred in 5 years in the area named as “the most ethnically diverse district in England and Wales”.
Even “regenerated” areas such as Elephant & Castle and Stratford, which saw a £12.5 billion investment in recent years – the largest urban regeneration programme in Europe – is currently plagued by child sex grooming gangs.
Breitbart London reported that MPs from mayor Sadiq Kahn’s own political party have sounded the alarm on risisng crime in the capital, with former Labour minister Stephen Timms demanding “serious action” in areas of London rendered “no-go zones” by acid attacks.
“I’ve had a number of discussions with representatives of moped delivery drivers and they say there are now parts of London where their drivers are not willing to go because of the danger of attack,” said the East Ham MP.
“I think all of us would regard it as unacceptable that there are no go areas in parts of London and parts of the UK. I think it requires some significant action to deal with the problem.”
Timms almost died at the hands of an Islamist woman who tried to stab him to death in 2010.
Areas such as the West Midlands and Essex have also seen large rises in acid attacks in recent years as reports soared from 340 in 2014 to 843 this year.
Police in London have been given 1000 acid crime response kits and officers are also due to get extra medical training and protective clothing.