Acid attack on teen volunteers
She can still see and she is not dead. Whatever it is we will cope with it.
TANZANIA
KIRSTIE TRUP and Katie Gee should have been flying back to Britain tomorrow to receive their A-level results after a summer adventure teaching underprivileged children.
Instead, the terrified schoolgirls were on drips in an African hospital awaiting overnight medical evacuation after an acid attack on the island of Zanzibar.
They were burnt on their faces, hands, legs, backs and necks in the attack while walking on streets mostly deserted by locals, who had gone indoors to break their Ramadan fast.
Two weeks earlier, Katie had been struck in the street in Zanzibar by a Muslim woman for singing during the holy month.
Marc Trup, Kirstie’s father, said the 18-year-olds were so scared and in so much pain after the unprovoked attack that they were unable to speak to him when a passer-by lent them a mobile phone. Trup, a property adviser,
Marc Trup, Kirstie’s father
said they were both ‘‘inconsolable’’.
‘‘We couldn’t get anything out of them because they had been burnt. Both girls are very shocked and very frightened.’’
They were still in pain when he tried to talk to them. ‘‘There was no question about that. They were about to run them under a shower. Terrible, absolutely shocking,’’ he said.
The London girls had been working for Art in Tanzania, an educational organisation that attracts students to its programmes, for nearly a month. They were also aware of conservative Muslim dress codes.
‘‘They weren’t dressed inappro- priately because they know the rules,’’ Trup said. Nor did anything they wore give away their Jewish backgrounds.
‘‘They had been warned not to wear Stars of David,’’ he said.
Kirstie, from Hampstead Garden Suburb, is hoping to read history at the University of Bristol and Katie is considering the Uni- versity of Leeds. Trup said they had been targeted ‘‘for no reason, walking along the street. We know it’s a Muslim country, they were Western girls.
‘‘Unfortunately they went out during the month of Ramadan. It’s a very Muslim island. There has been a huge alert in African countries with potential threats. Maybe it’s related, maybe not. Who knows?’’
Kirstie’s mother, Rochelle, is a volunteer on the board of the Jewish Women’s Aid, an organisation that helps Jewish women who are the victims of violence.
Trup said Kirstie’s mother was having to deal with flights and insurance. She was managing to keep ‘‘very calm and collected, or you are no value to anyone’’.
As for his daughter, he said: ‘‘She can still see and she is not dead. Whatever it is we will cope with it.’’
The two girls are due to arrive back in Britain today.
Katie’s mother, Nicky Gee, said: ‘‘They were dressed appro- priately. I’ve spoken to my daughter. Her whole face and body is burnt. They just attacked two young girls.’’
The friends have been members of The Abstinence Club for more than a year, a group of 100 celibate London teenage girls and boys who promote ‘‘the only reliable form of contraception’’.
The girls were walking to dinner on Thursday when they were attacked by two men riding a moped. The pillion passenger threw acid over the teenagers. The incident took place in Stone Town, a Unesco world heritage site and the main city in Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania.
Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice for Tanzania warns that although most visits to the country are trouble-free, ‘‘violent and armed crime is increasing’’. The advice, on its website, says: ‘‘Mugging, bag snatching (especially from passing cars) and robbery have increased throughout the country.’’