Acid attack teenagers arrive home

Two British teenagers attacked with acid on Zanzibar have arrived back in the UK.

Volunteer teachers Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both 18, are understood to have been flown into RAF Northolt in London to be reunited with their families.

Five men are being questioned by police on the Indian Ocean island after the women were attacked by men on a motorbike as they walked along a road on Wednesday night.

Mkadam Khamis, regional police commissioner on Zanzibar, told the Daily Telegraph: "There are five people we have, all men, who we are interrogating over this matter. They have not yet been arrested. They are co-operating and answering our questions."

The young women, from north London, were enjoying the last week of a trip as volunteer teachers to the predominantly Muslim island when a corrosive substance was thrown at them in an apparently unprovoked attack.

They suffered burns to their faces, hands, legs, backs and necks, The Times reported.

They were flown to the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam for treatment before being released.

Miss Trup's father Marc told the newspaper the pair were "inconsolable" and still in pain when he spoke to them on a mobile phone lent to the girls by a passer-by after the attack. "We couldn't get anything out of them because they had been burned," he said. "Both girls are very shocked and very frightened." Speaking about his daughter, he added: "She can still see and she is not dead. Whatever it is we will cope with it."

A family friend who spoke on behalf of the girls' mothers, Rochelle Trup and Nicky Gee, said: "Both families are extremely upset and distressed at this completely unprovoked attack on their lovely daughters, who had only gone to Zanzibar with good intention."

Katie Gee later thanked supporters for their good wishes. Writing on Twitter she said: "Thank you for all your support x".