A DISTRAUGHT schoolgirl has been told by doctors that unsightly scarring to her cheeks, nose and forehead will take two years to fade, after youths threw an aerosol on to a bonfire and it exploded in her face.

Twelve-year-old Jasmine Southon has been told by burns experts that the prominent red marks will remain into her teenage years, and she will need to wear high-strength sunblock when she goes out for at least the next year.

The youngster, who lives in Dijon Avenue, Acomb, York, was petrified of how her classmates would react when she returned to lessons at Lowfield School at the start of the summer term yesterday.

Her mother, Nicky, 36, said: "She is very depressed and I feel absolutely awful. She keeps waking up in the night crying and she does not want to go back to school. I want the lads responsible to realise exactly what they have done."

Jasmine was taking a short cut through the grounds of St Stephen's Church, in Acomb, with two friends at about 4.30pm on Good Friday, when the incident happened.

She heard a sizzling noise and went to investigate, discovering that a bonfire had been lit. Some youths ran off - just as a deodorant can which had been placed on the flames shot out and struck Jasmine in the face.

Her friends quickly called an ambulance and she was taken to York Hospital, before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Pinderfields, in Wakefield, where she spent two nights.

When she returned home, her face and neck were covered in huge scabs and she was forced to stay indoors to help prevent the wounds becoming infected.

Nicky, who has two other children, said: "Her face was like a balloon. It all swelled up. She had no eyelashes and her hair was burned at the back. It was awful."

York Police confirmed they were investigating the incident, but there had been no arrests made. Jasmine and her friends have been unable to give officers full descriptions of the boys responsible for the fire because they only saw them from the back.

A North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service spokesman told the Evening Press: "Generally, any sort of pressurised canister put on a fire is likely to explode as the temperature rises, and it can fly off in any direction. Anyone doing this is incredibly stupid."

He said it was fortunate that her clothes did not catch fire and that her eyes escaped injury.

Updated: 09:59 Tuesday, April 05, 2005