'Screams made your hairs stand up'

Locals look at newspaper headlines in Stone Town, where two young British women suffered an acid attack. The government of Zanzibar offered a financial reward for information leading to the arrest of two men who threw acid in their faces. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

This is an unidentified image released by the family of one of the two British teenagers attacked with acid in Zanzibar. The identity of the victim in the photo and the date and exact location of the photo is not known at this time. Picture: AP Source: AP

A BRITISH tourist yesterday described the frantic attempts to douse the terrified British teenagers with water to wash off the burning acid.

Screaming in agony, Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup were hosed down, pushed under showers and splashed with buckets of water shortly after the horrifying attack.

Local people threw one of the North London teenagers into the sea, hoping the salt water would help.

The tourist, known only as Sam, was with his girlfriend in Stone Town when he heard screams that made 'the hairs on the back of your neck stand up'. They rushed over to a public toilet attached to a restaurant to find one girl, obviously badly injured, being hosed down. Two minutes later the second girl arrived and she too, was doused - until the hose stopped working.

Sam said: 'We knew there was something on them that we had to get off.'

The girls were taken to a clinic a short walk away where Sam's girlfriend and some medical students began 'throwing saline solution at them'.

With only basic medical assistance available on Zanzibar, Katie and Kirstie were bundled into a car and taken to a hotel, where they were pushed under showers by the swimming pool in the desperate fight to remove the corrosive material.

Sam said: 'The sea water seems to have helped because the other girl is injured slightly worse because we initially just had basic tap water and a bucket.'

Sam, who flew to Dar es Salaam with the girls, added: 'They were obviously extremely shocked and in a huge amount of pain and stress. They are both going to be fine but it is going to be a long healing process.

'The main thing I want to make clear is that they weren't wearing inappropriate clothing. One girl was wearing a sweater, long trousers and trainers and the other was very similar. They were just here to help the local community and completely innocent. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

A top plastic surgeon said last night the emergency first-aid was the ideal treatment for the burns.

Brent Tanner, honorary consultant plastic surgeon at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, hailed the action of locals in hosing down one of the girls with water and immersing the other in the sea.

He said: 'It seems old-fashioned, but sulphuric acid is probably the most corrosive and it's vital to get copious amounts of water on to exposed areas of skin.'

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