NEW YORK, USA (AP) — A man hurled acid in his daughter's face in a gruesome attack that sent her into a street screaming for help as her skin peeled and her clothes disintegrated, police and witnesses said.

As his 49-year-old daughter sat on his couch in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, Jerome Lynch abruptly left the room, returned with a cup of what she thought was water and doused her with it, she later told a cousin, according to the Daily News.

Then the corrosive burning started, and Darlene Lynch ran outside as her clothes disintegrated and her skin fell from her face, witnesses said.

"You could see the smoke coming off her body," Clarissa Shakespeare told the newspaper. "Everyone was just traumatized and scared. Her skin looked like melting wax."

Bystanders poured water on the victim, helped pull away her clothes and covered her with a sheet, witnesses said.

Her 69-year-old father was arrested on an assault charge. Information on his arraignment and lawyer weren't immediately available.

Darlene Lynch is the main caregiver for her father, who uses a wheelchair and has been deteriorating mentally in recent years, said a cousin, Dominique Goodwin, who was in Brooklyn on a visit from her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The daughter was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said. The hospital declined to give an update on her condition.

Goodwin told the Daily News that Darlene Lynch may lose her left eye because of the attack.

"(Darlene is) asking why her father did this. She doesn't understand," Goodwin said.

Shakespeare said Jerome Lynch sometimes poured bleach and ammonia in his building's hallway to deter children from playing there. But another niece said he generally welcomed spending time with relatives.

"He's usually laughing, smiling, telling jokes," Celeste Lynch told the Daily News.