Cabbie describes 'piercing, horrendous screams' from London acid attack

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John Moody was at his London apartment Thursday night when he heard "two very, very loud piercing, horrendous screams."

The cab driver didn't think much of it at first. His Hackney Road apartment is near two soccer fields, so he's used a lot of noise and ruckus at night. But less than a minute later, he heard police sirens.

"As soon as the blue lights arrived outside the window. I got up to have the look," Moody told As It Happens guest host Laura Lynch.  

We're just hoping to earn a living driving a taxi, and we're in lockdown.- John Moody, taxi driver

He saw a man in distress standing in a doorway as two police officers removed his T-shirt. It was the aftermath of the first of five acid attacks in London on Thursday night.

The Metropolitan Police force said the 90-minute spree began late Thursday. Two men on a moped tossed a noxious substance into the face of a 32-year-old moped driver, then jumped on his vehicle and drove away.

Moody took out his phone and started filming.

"Within 30 seconds fo me starting to film, the police arrived with huge containers of water and then they proceeded to gently pour it over the guy's head," Moody said.

"And it really struck me when I heard one of the police officers said that, 'We need to pur it into your eyes. You need to keep your eyes open.' That was a game-changer. I realized this was a serious event.'"

The pattern was repeated across a swath of east London four more times. At least one victim, a man in his 20s, was left with life-changing injuries, police said.

A 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm.

Shortly after the attack outside Moody's apartment, he said other moped drivers — food couriers, mostly — started arriving at the scene. 

"Word had gotten around that one of their own had been attacked," he said. "Within five minutes of the attack, there was like five or six moped here. And then there were literally two of three arriving every minute.

"And each one of them, as they were getting off their mopeds, they were looking at their phone. ... So I can only assume that someone put the message out and they all came round."

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That act of solidarity was not an unfamiliar sight for Moody. He said cab drivers in the city also show up for each other when one of them has been attacked or in harmed in a collision. 

"It's what we do," he said.

The attacks are part of a growing trend in the British capital. London police say the number of reported attacks with corrosive liquids rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016.

Some appear related to gang activity or the theft of cars and motorbikes.

The city has also suffered a spate of other major attacks in recent months, including a deadly truck and knife attack near the London Bridge in June, and a van attack outside a mosque later that month.

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"After the London Bridge attack, I'm very, very wary — windows always three-quarters up, doors always locked," Moody said.

"This is my city. This is London, you know? And we're just hoping to earn a living driving a taxi, and we're in lockdown. It's bizarre."