Jameel Muhktar: Acid attack victim at 'rock bottom'

A victim of an acid attack who suffered "life-changing" injuries has said it has left him feeling reclusive and "ruined".

Jameel Muhktar had to be placed in an induced coma after he and his cousin, Resham Khan, suffered severe burns in the attack on 21 June in east London.

Mr Muhktar, 37, who has since moved from London to Greater Manchester said his "confidence is rock bottom".

"It's like a split second changed everything... It's ruined me", he said.

The cousins had been celebrating Ms Khan's 21st birthday before the attack in which a corrosive substance was thrown on to them through their car windows while they were at traffic lights in Beckton.

Mr Muhktar had burns across his body arms, legs, back, neck and the right side of his face as well as damage to his right eye and ear.

Ms Khan, a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, had damage to her left eye and required two skin grafts.

Mr Muhktar said he is now "stuck" in his bedsit "24/7".

"Since this has happened, I'm cautious about everything.

"Even my bedroom door - I'll think three or four times before I open it because that pain that I suffered that day was disgusting.

"Imagine, your skin's dropping off, you can't see, and you're burning - it was like a horror movie", he said.

"I can't sleep, I can't really eat. My confidence is rock bottom.

"I was a proper outdoor person and now I feel like a bit of a recluse. I don't want to see anybody", he said.

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Describing the moment of the attack, Mr Muhktar said: "This guy just walked over to my car... and then I just felt a load of water come in the car and that was it, just started burning.

"I managed to put the window up but I couldn't see anything because of the burning".

He said he then tried to drive away but crashed the car into a railing before taking his cousin out of the car.

"But our clothes started melting... I started kicking on people's doors who started bringing water out.

"I was using all the water on her face. I was letting myself burn - I was bad, I was dying. And then when I came round two days later, I was on a life-support machine".

"I'm deaf in one ear. The acid has gone through and made a hole in my eardrum", he said.

There has been a sharp rise in attacks involving corrosive fluids in London in the past four years.

In 2016-2017, there were 398 victims of crimes involving "noxious or corrosive" substances in the capital city.