The number of attacks using acid and other corrosive substances in Britain has risen dramatically, more than doubling in the past seven years, according to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).
The latest NHS hospital figures recorded 144 assaults in 2011/12 involving corrosive substances, which can also include kerosene, gasoline, and bleach.
Experts say they believe many of the cases involving acid are linked to Asian communities, with women attacked by their husbands for objecting to forced marriages and men getting assaulted during disputes over dowries.
Jaf Shah, executive director of Acid Survivors Trust International, said that many attacks in Britain were not reported because targeted women lived in fear of reprisals.
“There is a reluctance among women in the Asian community to come forward,” he said. “These attacks do not usually come from strangers, but from someone close to them in the community - a husband, a father, or their family.”
The figures show that while the largest group of those assaulted was between 15 and 59 years old, high numbers of elderly persons were attacked using such substances.
One such attack last year was recorded on a child below the age of 14.
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