PICTURES & VIDEO: Bird's eye view shows devastation of Penn Road blast that rocked Wolverhampton suburb

A woman aged 73, named locally as Wendy Ayoub, escaped with only cuts and bruises after apparently being saved because her washing machine shielded her from falling debris.

Firefighters have told how they had to free the woman by hand from the rubble, for fear of sparking a new gas explosion with cutting equipment.

Penn Road resident Matt Eccles said: "I just heard a great big explosion that shook me out of bed and my neighbour told me that there had been a house that had exploded over the road.

"It was loud enough to wake me up, it was a proper explosion."

Next door neighbour Sam Uppal, aged 19, told how his property shook following the blast at 8.15am and had also been damaged as a result.

He said: "I was asleep at the time. I felt this massive bang, the house was shaking. I thought it was an earthquake. Mum was downstairs at the time, she was panicking.

"I went outside straight away. I saw the windows in the road and then I looked right and saw it had all collapsed down. Part of our house has collapsed inside."

He said Ms Ayoub had lived at the property for around 20 years.

Mr Uppal said: "She is really kind, she knows my parents. She usually lets us know when she goes out and gives us letters."

Another resident Jamie Guy, aged 25, was one of the first to arrive at the scene.

He said: "I was lying in bed and there was a bang followed by a bit of a rumble. I thought a bomb had gone off. In this day and age with what you see on the news it is easy to be fearful of that.

"I went out and saw the police and there was some smoke from the debris that has crashed down."