Gas blast survivors tell of horror

A man who survived an explosion which destroyed four houses and injured 15 people has spoken of his ordeal.

Leon Barker was getting ready for work when a suspected gas blast in his next-door neighbour's kitchen ripped through the home he shares with his wife Sarah and children Joshua, 11, Taylor, eight and Ellis, three.

Mr Barker said: "I got up to go to work at half six and just after seven I heard 'bang' and the house came down. Next thing I knew I was climbing out of the rubble and surfaced at next door's back garden.

"I looked up and saw the middle lad half hanging out of the house and half trapped. I climbed up, got him out and then started shouting.

"My eldest child was screaming and then I was holding the roof up while the firemen were trying to get him out - which they did."

The gas explosion flattened four terraced homes in Merlin Road, Irlam, Salford, Greater Manchester. Investigators believe it happened in the kitchen of Mr Barker's neighbour - an 82-year-old woman who is being treated in hospital for 30 per cent burns.