DPA
Phnom Penh - A Cambodian toddler died after she was doused with acid as she slept at home beside her grandmother, who was also badly injured, a non-government official said Wednesday. Thai Tim, 3, and her grandmother Thorm Saroeun, 46, were asleep at home when an unknown attacker threw acid over the pair, said Nora Lindstrom, project manager for Cambodia Acid Survivor's Charity.
"Sadly the little girl died before she reached us. Children are rarely the targets of acid attacks, but they are frequently victims. We don't know why the family was attacked, but it is a disturbingly common happening," Lindstrom said.
"The grandmother is weak but stable, but it's hard to give a prognosis now - burns have a very high infection rate, and she has burns to a bit over 30 per cent of her body including her face, neck and torso so we can't say at this stage. It's serious."
Lindstrom said the acid appeared to have been a particularly corrosive type, but the sheer amount would have been enough to do serious damage whatever type it had been. No motive has yet been established.
"Any acid will eat through human flesh and bones. The damage is usually extensive and always devastating. I don't know how a person can do this to another person," she said.
Acid is cheap and easily bought in Cambodia and therefore often used as a weapon. Scores of people become victims of acid attacks each year, most usually because of disputes of land or lovers. The attack happened last week, Lindstrom said.
The grandmother was being treated for free by Lindstrom's sister organization, the Children's Surgical Center, in Phnom Penh.
"Sadly the little girl died before she reached us. Children are rarely the targets of acid attacks, but they are frequently victims. We don't know why the family was attacked, but it is a disturbingly common happening," Lindstrom said.
"The grandmother is weak but stable, but it's hard to give a prognosis now - burns have a very high infection rate, and she has burns to a bit over 30 per cent of her body including her face, neck and torso so we can't say at this stage. It's serious."
Lindstrom said the acid appeared to have been a particularly corrosive type, but the sheer amount would have been enough to do serious damage whatever type it had been. No motive has yet been established.
"Any acid will eat through human flesh and bones. The damage is usually extensive and always devastating. I don't know how a person can do this to another person," she said.
Acid is cheap and easily bought in Cambodia and therefore often used as a weapon. Scores of people become victims of acid attacks each year, most usually because of disputes of land or lovers. The attack happened last week, Lindstrom said.
The grandmother was being treated for free by Lindstrom's sister organization, the Children's Surgical Center, in Phnom Penh.
