Zanzibar acid attack: Britons return home as ‘men held’

Warning: this article contains distressing images

Volunteer teachers Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both 18, were attacked by men on a motorbike as they walked along a road on the Indian Ocean island on Wednesday night.

The pair arrived back in the UK on Friday and were taken to a hospital in London for further treatment.

Zanzibar police say a reward of 10m Tanzanian shillings (£3,970) has been offered for information leading to the capture of attackers.

Meanwhile five men were being held in connection with the attack, according to reports on Friday.

“There are five people we have, all men, who we are interrogating over this matter this morning,” Mkadam Khamis, regional police commissioner in Zanzibar, told the Daily Telegraph.

“They have not yet been arrested. They are co-operating and answering our questions.

“Later today maybe there will be a development legally.”

A photograph released by the girls’ families showed the injuries one of them suffered in the attack.

The girl is shown wearing an open striped shirt and a silver necklace.

What appear to be acid burns are clearly visible on her chin, neck and upper chest.

The young women, from north London, were enjoying the final week of a trip as volunteer teachers to the predominantly Muslim island when a corrosive substance was thrown at them in an apparently unprovoked attack.

They suffered burns to their faces, hands, legs, backs and necks, The Times reported.

Katie Gee’s mother, Nicky Gee, 45, told the Evening Standard: “I am just glad she is home. I want to get inside and see her. We spoke this morning and she said she was okay. It has been a terrible ordeal for the families.”

‘Inconsolable’

Marc Trup, Ms Trup’s father, told the newspaper the pair were “inconsolable” and still in pain when he spoke to them on a mobile phone lent to the girls by a passer-by after the attack.

“We couldn’t get anything out of them because they had been burned,” he said.

“Both girls are very shocked and very frightened.”

Speaking about his daughter, he added: “She can still see and she is not dead. Whatever it is we will cope with it.”

In a statement outside the Trup home, a family friend said the girls were flying home and their parents were looking forward to being reunited with them.

Speaking on behalf of the girls’ mothers, Rochelle Trup and Nicky Gee, he said: “Both families are extremely upset and distressed at this completely unprovoked attack on their lovely daughters, who had only gone to Zanzibar with good intention.”