Barking fire: Neighbour describes how woman rescued children's from burning building

An East London resident described the moment a woman saved the lives of two children during a fire in Barking on Monday.

Gediminas Radzevicius, 39, a painter and decorator who lives in a neighbouring property, rushed to help when fire broke out in Stern Close.

He described how he woke up to the sound of the fire alarm and started knocking on doors until the smoke got too much.

He took his family outside when his wife started shouting that there was a woman trying to lead her children to safety from a window.

An eyewitness said they saw Gediminas jump over the bushes to help catch the children as the woman dropped them to safety.

Gediminas said: "When she saw that I tried to catch them she started to drop them".

He managed to catch both children dropped down and rescue them from the fire.

Two women who had also been in the property then jumped down.

One boy, aged 11, died in the fire and two other children were taken to hospital, along with two adults.

A man was also treated at the scene in East London.

A three roomed flat on the second floor of the Barking property was destroyed in the fire.

The London Fire Brigade was called at 3.25am and spent just under two hours battling the fire.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, but the force have said that the cause of the fire does not appear to be suspicious.

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