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Zanzibar acid attack girls asked to return to help inquiry

Police chiefs have said they would like the girls burned in an acid attack in Zanzibar to return to the country to help with the investigation.

Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee from North London were badly burned when battery acid was thrown over them by two men on mopeds in Zanzibar City last week.

The girls were on volunteering trip with charity Art In Tanzania when they were attacked. They were flown home to the UK last week.

Katie was the most seriously injured of the two and is currently being treated at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Kirstie’s burns were less severe because she bathed in the sea immediately after the attack, and she has been allowed home to Hampstead in London to recover. She is due to return to hospital for skin grafts.

Police chiefs in Zanzibar told the Evening Standard that they would like the teenagers to return to the island, after both said they would be able to identify their attackers if they saw them again.

The island’s commissioner of police Mussa Ali Mussa reportedly said he wanted the girls to travel back to the country to help identify suspects, or help in any future trial.

He said he would be contacting the UK authorities to see if this could be arranged.

Police have so far questioned eight people over the attack.

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