A young mum and her toddler suffered the effects of severe smoke inhalation following a chip pan fire at a flat in Westcliff.

Firefighters from Southend and Leigh were called to the Sovereign Mews block of flats in Hamlet Court Road at about 2.20pm to find smoke billowing out of a third-floor flat.

The 22-year-old mother and her 16-month-old child were in the car park behind the block of flats suffering from smoke fumes when firefighters arrived.

The fire had started accidentally when fat from the chip pan caught alight.

Station commander at Southend Martyn Hodder said: "We got the kitchen fire under control and then administered first aid to the mother in particular, as she was suffering very badly from the smoke.

"Apparently she had got herself and the child out of the flat and then gone back in by herself to try to put it out. She was in quite a state when we found her.

"The damage to the kitchen was just to the immediate area but there was smoke everywhere in the flat."

The mother was taken to Southend Hospital as a precautionary measure.