British women attacked with acid in Zanzibar Two British teenagers attacked with acid in Zanzibar were medically evacuated to London on Thursday for treatment to ""horrendous"" burns. Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee, both 18, were on an overnight flight home after what may have been a deliberate attack on the Indian Ocean island. The friends, who were volunteering for a charity after finishing their A-levels, had argued with a shopkeeper days before two men on a moped threw acid over them, burning their faces and bodies. Kirstie Trup, left, and Katie Gee, right, suffered an acid attack in Zanzibar. Katie was also slapped by a local woman for singing during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and a friend of the girls suggested they may have been singled out because they are Jewish. A radical Islamic preacher who has urged followers to protest against Western influences on Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, is among those whom police want to question. Katie Gee's father Jeremy, a chartered surveyor, said: ""I spoke to Katie about an hour and a half ago. We are absolutely devastated. The photographs that I have seen are absolutely horrendous. The level of the burns are beyond imagination. Acid attack: One of the two British teenagers arrives at the airport in Zanzibar on her way to Dar-es-Salam. ""She is expected to be back later tomorrow morning when she will be taken to hospital where consultants and surgeons are waiting for the girls to arrive."" Her mother Nicky added that ""her whole face and body is burnt"." Miss Trup, of Hampstead, north London, wants to read history at Bristol University and Miss Gee, of East Finchley, intends to study sociology at Nottingham University. Both girls" families spent yesterday at the home of Kirstie's father, Marc, a dentist and former director of Bupa Dental Services. They issued a statement saying they were ""extremely upset and distressed at this completely unprovoked attack on [our] lovely daughters who had only gone to Zanzibar with good intention"." The girls were working for a month at the St Monica nursery school in Zanzibar's capital, Stone Town, for the Art in Tanzania charity on a trip organised by the Kent-based travel company i-to-i. The day before the attack, Miss Gee tweeted that she had met the former US president, Bill Clinton, who was on the island promoting the anti-malarial work of the Clinton Health Access Initiative. The girls had also clashed with local people. Oli Cohen, a friend of Katie, said: ""The girls were walking through the town singing during Ramadan when a Muslim lady came up to her shouting. She lost her temper and reacted violently - and hit her in the face for singing. ""They were both extremely shaken up by it. I think white north London Jewish girls walking around in Zanzibar always make them a target as it's a Muslim country."" Bashir Ismail, of Art in Tanzania, said the girls argued with a nearby shop owner a few days ago and that when the attack happened, at about 7pm on Wednesday: ""The two attackers passed by several white tourists in the area and threw acid after reaching closer to them, which raises suspicion of a planned attack."" Tanzanian police want to question Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda, the head of the Council of the Islamic Organisation, a radical Muslim outfit based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who encouraged supporters to demonstrate to secure the release of 10 imprisoned members of an Islamic group that wants Zanzibar to split from the mainland. In recent months there have been several attacks on religious leaders, including an acid attack on a Muslim cleric in November and the shooting dead of a Catholic priest in February.Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzania's president, visited the two teenagers in hospital and called their ordeal ""a shameful attack that tarnishes the image of our country"."