Post date: Aug 08, 2013 12:8:51 PM
Two 18-year-old British women from Manchester, North of England, are injured in an acid attack in Zanzibar.
STONE TOWN, ZANZIBAR (AUGUST 08, 2013) (REUTERS) - Two British teenage girls volunteering in Tanzania's semi-autonomousZanzibar islands were injured when unknown men hurdled acid at them, on Wednesday (August 07).
Police in the Indian Ocean archipelago identified the victims as 18-year-olds Kirstie Trup and Katy Gee from Manchester.
The duo were volunteering at a local school in Zanzibar, an island that is popular with international tourists but has suffered a wave of deadly protests last year as supporters of an Islamist group repeatedly clashed with the police.Zanzibar Urban West regional police commander Mkadam Khamis Mkadam told reuters the Britons were on Wednesday night attacked by men riding on a motorbike.
"The attackers approached the girls as they were walking on a street at around 7.15pm and threw acid at them," Mkadam told Reuters over the telephone.
"The incident occurred when the streets were deserted as most people were breaking their Ramadan fast."
Television images showed one girl in considerable pain in the back of a car before they were rushed to Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
"The victims sustained facial, chest and back injuries from the acid attack," Mkadam said, adding that the police believe the attack was an isolated incident.
Zanzibar's Minister of Information, Tourism, Culture, and Sports Said Ali Mbarouksent a message of warning out to all citizen's of Zanzibar:
"We should cooperate with other government sectors to ensure that the perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice and I beg our nationals in any way this is not something they should be doing because tourism is the strong pillar of our economy so if we do such acts we are killing our economy and our livelihoods in general so it is not an honourable thing to do it's a bad thing and it's supposed to be condemned by all citizens of Zanzibar."
The Britons were expected to fly home on Thursday.
The attack during the tourist season in the historic town, comes as Zanzibar has been struggling with rising religious tension.
In November, a Zanzibar Muslim leader, Sheikh Fadhil Suleiman Soraga, was hospitalised after being injured in an acid attack.
Two Christian leaders were killed early this year in the predominantly Muslim islands of Zanzibar in separate attacks.
A separatist group in Zanzibar, Uamsho (Awakening), is pushing for the archipelago to exit from its 1964 union with mainland Tanzania, which is ruled as a secular country. Uamsho wants to introduce Islamic Sharia law in Zanzibar.