• Ten New York City teenagers suffered burns after attending a party at a public housing development on Saturday and getting doused in an acid-like chemical thown on top of them.
• A police spokeswoman told INSIDER that the “unknown liquid caustic substance” caused second- and third-degree burns to the teens.
• One of the teens’ mothers told The New York Times that her daughter had an array of dime- and quarter-sized burns across her back, chest, and arms.
• An investigation is ongoing, but police have not yet arrested anyone.
• Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.

A rowdy party that drew hundreds of teenagers to the basement of a public housing development in New York City’s East Village neighbourhood left a handful of partygoers with second- and third-degree burns after an acid-like chemical was thrown on top of them.

Police arrived at the scene late Saturday to discover 10 teenagers with severe burns on their skin, “possibly from an unknown liquid caustic substance,” a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department told INSIDER.

“It is unknown how the victims were assaulted by the caustic substance at this time,” Detective Sophia Mason told INSIDER. She added that the NYPD has not yet arrested anyone, and the investigation is ongoing.

The party took place in a basement room of the First Houses complex before the teens moved outside to the courtyard, where they were doused with the liquid, The New York Times reported. All of the victims were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The mother of one of the teenage victims told The Times her daughter had dime- and quarter-sized burns across her back, chest, and arms.

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“We are shocked,” Valerie Vail told The Times. “I try to teach my kid to be resilient, but it’s also traumatic and upsetting.”

Vail said other parents heard from police that one of the building’s resident apparently threw an orange-coloured drain cleaner on the crowd of teenagers.

One resident of the First Houses complex, Joey Quinones, told ABC 7 Eyewitness News that he saw the frenzy that ensued after the chemical was thrown, watching as the teens nursed their burns and rushed one another away from the complex.

“We were like, ‘What happened?’ and they said, ‘Some crazy guy threw acid on us,'” Quinones said.

The Times reported that a number of the teenagers were students at Brooklyn Technical High School, one of New York City’s elite public high schools.

Administrators at Brooklyn Tech did not immediately respond to INSIDER’s request for comment.

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