Zanzibar acid attack: Police ‘shoot’ cleric suspect

A radical Muslim preacher wanted in connection with an acid attack on two British teenagers in Zanzibar has been “shot” by police, according to reports.
The women were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday. Picture: GettyThe women were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday. Picture: Getty
The women were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday. Picture: Getty

Sheikh Issa Ponda Issa was hit in the shoulder with a tear gas canister as he tried to escape from officers after being cornered near Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam.

Friends Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both 18, continued to be treated in hospital yesterday and are said to be “well rested and comfortable”.

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The women were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday where they are receiving treatment for burns inflicted in an unprovoked attack while they were on a volunteering holiday on the island, off the coast of Tanzania.

Family members of both teenagers are keeping a bedside vigil, after they were flown home and immediately sent to the capital’s regional burns centre.

A hospital spokesman confirmed the pair, from north London, continue to be treated by medics. Their conditions are described as “stable”.

Miss Gee has already taken to Twitter to say: “Thank you for all your support x”.

Meanwhile, Tory MP Bill Cash, who sits on the parliamentary group for Tanzania, has urged the Foreign Office to further upgrade its travel warning for tourists visiting Zanzibar and Tanzania because it was “more than just an ordinary criminal event”.

The Foreign Office updated its Tanzania travel advice page on Friday with details of the attack and warns British nationals to read its travel advice.

Mr Cash said: “People need to be extra vigilant and the Foreign Office and High Commission need to make a very thorough evaluation of the threat, as these latest attacks would seem to be on religious grounds.”

British tourist Sam Jones told how he tried to help one of the women as the acid burned through her skin following the attack on Wednesday night.

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Mr Jones, who was on holiday on the island with his girlfriend Nadine, said he heard their screams following the attack and found one of them crouching by a toilet block in pain.

“She just kept screaming that she needed water,” he said.

“My girlfriend grabbed a hose and we started to wash her down as best we could.”

Police said five men are being questioned by officers on the Indian Ocean island after the women were attacked by men on a motorbike as they walked along a road.

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