An aspiring model and businesswoman has described how her clothes burnt away from her after she was attacked with acid in Beckton.

Resham Kay, a business management student from Manchester, had just returned from an exchange year in Cyprus and was visiting family to celebrate her 21st birthday last Wednesday.

Excited for a nice meal and a trip to a spa, she went out for a car ride with her cousin Jameel Muhktar when they were randomly attacked at a set of traffic lights in Tollgate Road at 9.15am.

It was there, Resham told Twitter, that “a man threw acid through my window and then went round to his and threw more.”

“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.”

Suffering from the effects of the acid, Jameel lost control of the car and it crashed.

“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.”

A passer-by drove the pair to the local hospital, who transferred them to a specialist unit that could deal with their horrific injuries.

Resham suffered burns on her face and her body and has been given a skin graft, while Jameel’s injuries were so sever that he had to be put into a medically-induced coma.

He has since regained consciousness but Resham, who had just been reunited with him after two years when the attack took place, has not been able to see him yet because she is bedbound.

She said: “I’m devastated. I keep wondering if my life will ever be the same.”

A friend has started a crowdfunder to help Resham, as her injuries mean that the “very confident young woman” can’t start her new job, which was to be helping young people on a social inclusion residential project.

At the time of writing, almost £8,000 had been raised to help Resham, who feels that her identity has been stolen from her.

Police and the Territorial Support Group searched a house in E16 that afternoon, but have made no arrests. Enquiries continue.