Acid attack victim: Sunglasses saved my vision

A mother has revealed how a pair of sunglasses saved her daughter’s eyesight after a passer-by threw acid into her face.

Bethany Storro had just purchased a pair of sunglasses when a woman approached her with a cup and said: ‘Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?’

The acid in the cup was then thrown on the 28-year-old who fell to the ground in pain as the skin on her face bubbled and disintegrated.

Speaking for the first time since the attack, she said: "It was the most painful thing ever."

"My heart stopped. It ripped through my clothing the instant it touched my shirt; I could feel it burning through my second layer of skin."

With her head wrapped in bandages, she laughingly marvelled how her eyesight was
spared just minutes after she bought those sunglasses.

Her mother Nancy Neuwelt also pointed to the fact her daughter was wearing sunglasses, something she does not normally do, as "hand of God protecting her eyes".

Bethany has since had cosmetic surgery to remove dead skin from the areas that were most deeply injured.

Despite all she has been through, Bethany has insisted that she would not let the attack in Vancouver destroy her life.

A manhunt has been launched to find the woman responsible for the attack, described as a black woman with black hair in a pony tail.