A teenager suffered second-degree burns to her face and leg after being hit by what she believes was an exploding aerosol can at Reading Festival. Leone Cook was at a campfire with friends at the end of the event before an explosion left her in excruciating pain.
The 18-year-old's mum Redd Cook said it's not clear whether someone had thrown a can into the flames or if it had been placed there earlier. Redd told The Mirror her daughter has been left traumatised by the attack.
She said Leone's tent was set on fire after the explosion. Leone said her daughter saw people making Molotov cocktail-style explosives.
Redd said: "It was chaos, there was fighting, there were missiles being thrown, there were full bottles of liquid being hurled at people.
“There was loads of screaming and...people are wondering what do they do at this time of night?"
Leone suffered second degree burns up her right leg (Image: Redd Cook)
After the 1am explosion, police are understood to have carried Leone across to the paramedics' tent. "There was a huge crowd, a hundred people around them because she was screaming [due to shock] for such a long time," said Redd.
She was sat around a campfire when an explosion left her in agony (Image: Redd Cook)
Leone was taken to Berkshire Royal Hospital in Reading, where she was met by her mum who had driven almost three hours.
"When I got there she'd been sick on herself. The burns go right from her ankle to her knicker line, all down one side of her leg, her face, her hands, her hair.
"She is absolutely traumatised by it."
The teenager also suffered burns to her face (Image: Redd Cook)
She drove her daughter two hours to Maidstone Hospital with staff spending four hours treating her before referring her to a specialist burns clinic around an hour away.
Redd spoke to a young man, aged 19, at the Reading hospital who had had a canister thrown into a fire near him which exploded in his face, breaking the skin around his eye.
"His eye was probably bigger than an orange, it was oozing and purple, and all sorts of colours; he couldn’t open it," she said.
Skin on her leg was burned off (Image: Redd Cook)
Redd is now considering getting Leone counselling to help her get over the trauma of the incident.
She said: "In her head she’s thinking 'why did they do this to me?'"
She has tried to explain to her daughter it was just a coincidence you were sitting there and it could have hit anyone.
Doctors believe it could take a year for her wounds to heal (Image: Redd Cook)
She added: "It wasn’t someone has attacked her personally but in her head she feels that it was targeted at her and no matter what I say I can’t explain it.
"She keeps saying 'Why did someone do it? Why did they do it? What’s it going to look like?'"
Leone must visit a burns unit twice a week (Image: Redd Cook)
She must wear factor 50 suncream on her leg for the rest of her life (Image: Redd Cook)
Leone must now attend the burns clinic twice a week and doctors have said her burns will take a month before they start healing.
Recovery could then take up to a year.
It is unclear whether she will be left with any permanent scarring (Image: Redd Cook)
Doctors have said the facial burns, including to the nostrils, are superficial and should fully heal and they hope there is no scarring on her leg which is currently fully bandaged. However, Redd said doctors told her daughter her skin was so badly damaged that she can never sunbathe and must wear factor 50 sun cream every day.
Leone has a place at Portsmouth University but has decided to defer her start until next year. Referring to the festival, Redd said the organisers need to be "held to account" and properly trained security measures must be in place going forward for their safety as well as paying attendees.
A spokesperson for event organisers Festival Republic said: “We are in in touch with the family involved in this reported incident and are working with all authorities and medical services whilst we investigate this.”
In a previous statement by Thames Valley Police on September 1, the force said around 110,000 people arrived in Reading for the festival.
Chief Superintendent Michael Loebenberg, Strategic Commander for the policing operation, said over the four days, 37 arrests were made for offences including assault, drug supply, criminal damage and public order and 152 crimes were reported, as of August 31.
