Aspiring model, cousin burned in London acid attack on her 21st birthday

LONDON (RNN) - A woman and her cousin received life-altering injuries in an acid attack while they were sitting at a traffic light.

Resham Khan and her cousin, Jameel Muhktar, 37 had been celebrating her 21st birthday before the attack.  

In an interview with Channel 4, Muhktar said he felt that he was targeted because of his race or religion.

"This is definitely a hate crime. I believes it had something to do with Islamophobia or he has it in for Muslims because of the things going on lately," Muhktar said.

He also feels that "if this was an Asian guy like myself going up to a couple in a car, an English couple, and acid-attacking them, I know for a fact and the whole country knows it would have been straight-away cast as a terrorist attack."

Muktar said the perpetrator knocked on the window, and when he rolled it down to see what he wanted, the man squirted the clear liquid on them.

"I thought it was water, until my cousin started screaming," he said.

"The pain was excruciating. I was struggling to close the window. My cousin struggled to get us away. I saw my clothes burn away in front of me," Khan said of the attack via Twitter.

"We stripped off in the middle of the road, running around screaming and begging for water. We did this for 45 minutes. No ambulance came," she said.

Passerbys hosed them down, and one ended up driving the two of them to the hospital.

The suspect wanted in connection to the attack, identified as John Tomlin, 24, is still at large, the BBC said.

According to the Gofundme account set up for the two, Khan sustained left eye damage, burns across her body, including arms, legs, face and shoulder, and she required skin graphs.

A business student at Manchester Metropolitan University, she had returned recently to the country after spending nine months in Cyprus as part of an exchange program. 

The attack has put Khan's life on hold. She was about to start a job.

"She was preparing to open her own business over the summer, and had plans to model for Asian bridal, makeup and hair artists," the Gofundme account page said. "But now she feels as though her identity has been stolen from her, on her 21st birthday." 

Muhktar was for a time put in an induced coma, and said he had to be "jet-washed" to get the acid off.

He suffered first-degree burns across body, including his arms, legs, back, neck. cheek, right ear, whole head, and side of his face. His right eye was damaged.

"I feel like someone is ironing me, 24/7," Muhktar said.

Acid attacks in the UK seem to be on the rise. In London, there were 454 acid attacks in 2016, compared to 261 in 2015, the BBC said.

In April, 20 people were hurt at a east London club during a mass acid attack, with two receiving eye injuries. Two men were arrested in connection to the attack.

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