Page last updated at 10:52 GMT, Thursday, 16 July 2009 11:52 UK

Flat blown up in air bed accident

File photo of a lilo being inflated
Officials said the blast was caused by an air pump

A German man has blown up his flat while trying to mend an inflatable mattress, local fire officials say.

The man from the western city of Dusseldorf used car tyre solvent to repair a hole and left it overnight.

But when he tried to inflate the mattress the next day, it was ignited by a spark from an electric air pump.

The explosion blasted the sitting room wall into a stairwell and blew out windows. Both the man, 45, and his daughter, three, suffered burns.

The fire brigade evacuated two buildings and sealed off a street while they checked for structural damage.

"The apartment looked devastated," Spiegel Online quoted a fire brigade spokesman as saying.

The paper said the cost of the damage was estimated at 20,000 euros (£17,200), and that the man would be put under investigation for causing an explosion through negligence.

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