Kurdish teenager ‘black and blue’ after being kicked and beaten in Croydon last Friday
Three people are still being sought in connection to the brutal attack on a 17-year-old Iranian-Kurdish asylum seeker Reker Amed last Friday.
Sixteen people have so far been arrested and 13 of them, including a 15-year-old boy, charged with offences including attempted murder and violent disorder.
Ahmed, 17, was beaten and kicked by a gang of around 30 while waiting at a bus stop in the south London suburb of Croydon with two friends.
Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Jeff Boothe said: “We have arrested 16 people, 13 have been charged.
“There are three more key individuals believed to have played a part and we are appealing for people to continue to come forward.”
Police believe three “key individuals” still at large and have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
Extra officers have been deployed to patrol the area to try to reassure residents after the attack, Mr Boothe added.
The victim’s brother, Hadi Ahmed, said Reker did not recognise him when he visited him in London’s King’s College Hospital.
Family friend Abdullah Abdullah said the teenager’s face was “black and blue” when he went to see him on Tuesday.
“He was very bad, his face had been smashed very badly,” the Daily Mail reported him as saying.
“He has lost his memory because when his brother went to hug him, he was crying, and he said ‘Why are you crying? What’s the reason?’
“He couldn’t recognise me as well. Mentally he is not well.”
Croydon Central’s Conservative MP Gavin Barwell compared the brutal attack to the 1993 racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop.
“Comparing the police response to that and this case – already we’ve seen a number of people charged,” he said.
“The police response sends a very clear message to the community and anyone else tempted to behave like this – this won’t be tolerated.”
