This is the devastation caused when a failed suicide bid led to a gas explosion that rocked a Wallington street on Saturday morning.

The blast destroyed a second-floor flat blowing the entire back wall into the garden of the building in Morton Close just after midnight.

The flat’s occupier was taken to hospital with severe burns to 60 per cent of her body, including her arms, legs and face. Five others, including a pregnant woman with a young child, fled the building.

It is understood the victim, 33-year-old Karen Queen, had left the gas on for more than an hour before igniting it in a suicide attempt.

Miss Queen is in a “stable but critical” condition on a ventilation machine in the specialist burns unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Her sister Kelly said she was in “deep shock” and said her family, particularly her father, were devastated by the news.

A neighbour said the garden looked like a “Second World War bombsite” and was covered in 3ft of rubble.

Jo Whittal, who lives next door to the flat with her three teenage children, said she feared for their lives when she realised what had happened.

She said: “The fireman told us that if the explosion had blown sideways rather than backwards, it would’ve have blown straight through my daughter’s bedroom.

“I haven’t been able to sleep since Friday and wouldn’t be surprised if our flat was damaged, too.

“Initially I was angry because of my children, but now I do feel bad for her because she has had quite a few problems.”

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she was horrified to find the semi-naked and badly burned woman on her front doorstep minutes after the explosion.

The neighbour called a paramedic, who advised her to put Miss Queen under a cold shower.

A neighbour from a separate block of flats told how she heard a loud bang and saw fire through her window.

She said: “This poor lady, who was pregnant and holding another baby, was let into our block and I gave her a blanket.

“I heard the explosion and when I looked outside at first I couldn’t see anything, then I saw the flames in the building.”

Just before the fire brigade arrived it was thought a baby was still in the flat, so one courageous resident ran upstairs, despite the flames, but could not find a child.

According to the London Fire Brigade, the flat suffered “substantial damage” and five people escaped from the burning building before firefighters arrived.

A police spokesman confirmed they were not treating the incident as suspicious and had made no arrests.