Anguish of Victoria's Secret girl scarred by acid attacker in a niqab

 The young victim of an acid attack says she wanted to die when she first saw her  disfigured face.

Naomi Oni, 20, was returning home from work at a Victoria’s Secret store when she was attacked by a woman wearing a Islamic niqab, which leaves only the eyes uncovered.

She spent a month in a burns unit and, despite fears she had been blinded, has recovered sight in her left eye and partial vision in her right.

Last night she said: ‘The first time I looked I was shocked. I didn’t want to live after I saw my face.

‘My head was ten times the size, my face was black, my eyes were swollen and my eyes were cutting out.

‘I thought I was going to go blind. I was terrified.’

Miss Oni was attacked after getting off a bus close to her home in Dagenham, East London, shortly after midnight on 30 December.

‘I got off at the bus stop of my house and was about to cross the road, I felt a presence behind me so I decided to look back,’ she told the BBC.

‘I saw what seemed to be a lady wearing what I think is a hijab, which was mostly black.

 ‘I remember being startled and shocked, thinking I don’t remember her getting off the bus with me, I didn’t hear footsteps behind me. The person was just staring back at me.'

Miss Oni said she then felt something being thrown at her: ‘Before I could feel it burning, I just knew it was acid, I thought OK someone is out to ... kill me.

‘I have no clue why someone would do this to me. I still ask myself the same question every day, Why me? What have I done? I didn’t understand.

'That person failed, whatever their aim was, they failed. God has given me a life for a reason and that’s what keeps me going.’

Last night  the mother of Miss Oni’s boyfriend  Ato said she believes the attacker  was specifically targeting her. Shelley Owede said: ‘I don’t think someone was hanging around, I think  that someone was really targeting her. They were going for her.  I’m thinking it was somebody  she knows or somebody who knows her that she doesn’t know.

‘People think it’s random, but I don’t think it’s random. People don’t go about carrying acid in the middle of the night.

‘For them to have got it and then waited for a woman who is vulnerable, I think it is somebody who knows her rather than a random person.’

Mrs Owede said Miss Oni has not had difficulties in previous relationships or been in trouble in the past and is puzzled by the motive.

She said: ‘I don’t know. She’s quiet, she’s a quiet girl. She goes to work and is home.

‘She is the sole carer for her mum so doesn’t really go out a lot. She’s home most of the time.’

Mrs Owede added that Miss Oni had raised concerns about returning home from her late shifts with her bosses. She said Miss Oni was wearing her normal work clothes, but there was nothing to identify her as a Victoria’s Secret employee.

She said: ‘She’s been complaining to her workplace about the late shifts. They don’t dress proactively, they just dress casually. She wasn’t carrying a Victoria’s Secret bag.’

The Metropolitan Police has said officers are keeping an open mind as to the motive.