A pregnant woman was fighting for her life after being turned into a human fireball at a flat in Southend.

Police are investigating how the young woman came to be set on fire, suffering 80 per cent burns at the flat in Eastcote Grove.

Firefighters were called to Ryan Court at 7.40pm last night where they found the 26-year-old mother, who is five months pregnant, walking naked down her drive in deep shock after the flames burnt all her clothes away.

Stunned neighbours said the woman, who is believed to be from Cameroon, had doused herself in petrol and set herself alight in front of her husband and young child - but police said they are keeping an open mind about what happened.

Station officer Rudy Jackson said: "She was in deep shock. It was horrific - the flames had burned all her clothes off.

"Her husband was also in shock. We believe he ran out of the flat with their baby."

The woman was given emergency treatment at the scene by firefighters and taken to Southend Hospital, but was later transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "The woman's condition is serious. Normally when people suffer 80 per cent burns they do not survive."

Published Thursday, January 16, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo