The two teenage victims of the Zanzibar acid attack have arrived back in the UK, as a photo has emerged showing the extent of Kirstie Trup’s injuries.
Five men are being questioned over the Stone Town attack, the head of the local police has confirmed, with officials also confirming a reward of 10million Tanzanian shillings (£4,000) for information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrators.
According to reports, three of the men who were under questioning have subsequently been released while the remaining two are still being interviewed by officers over the attack on charity volunteers Miss Trup and Katie Gee, both 18.
Mkadam Khamis, the regional police commissioner in Zanzibar, said: ’There are five people we have, all men, who we are interrogating over this matter.
‘They have not yet been arrested. They are cooperating and answering our questions. Maybe soon there will be a development legally.’
The picture of Miss Trup (above) reveals some scarring and discolouration of the skin around her chest, neck and the lower part of her face.
It is not clear if the marks are permanent or if they are expected to heal, and both women are due to receive medical treatment from British doctors now they are back in the country.
The five men being held were all detained late on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday in Stone Town, the Zanzibari capital of the predominantly Muslim country where the attack took place.
The men who carried out the attack were riding mopeds, police have confirmed, while the two women are reported to have sustained burns to their faces, hands, legs, backs and necks.
Both have just touched down back on home soil via a specially-chartered private medical evacuation flight from Tanzania.
Yesterday Marc Trup, Miss Trup’s father, told the Times newspaper that the pair were ‘inconsolable’ and ‘very shocked and very frightened’, and revealed they had called home by using a mobile phone lent to the girls by a passer-by after the attack.
Referring to Miss Trup, he added: ’She can still see and she is not dead. Whatever it is we will cope with it.’
Zanzibar is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean around 22 miles off the mainland. The semi-autonomous region of Tanzania has been the scene of some religious violence in recent years.
Earlier this year two Christian leaders were killed and in November a cleric was treated in hospital after an acid attack. The attack happened in the Stone Town area of Zanzibar’s eponymous capital city.
Initial story: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/08/british-acid-attack-teens-targeted-before-on-volunteer-trip-3917603/
I thought this was a holy month for Muslims?! Is one to take this cowardly depraved act as ”holy”?
And they call themselves ”men”?!!!
