Five firefighters and two ambulance staff took about an hour to help an obese Tadworth woman from her first floor flat with a tank-like specialist chair last night.

The woman, who weighed more than 25 stone, was taken to Epsom Hospital and treated for a heart condition.

A crew from Banstead fire station and paramedics from the South East Coast Ambulance Service were called to the flat in Merefield Gardens, Tadworth, at about 11pm on Monday, February 1.

They had to use a specialist chair – described as “a big chair with tracks on it like a tank” – to carry her from the building to the waiting ambulance.

A spokesman from Banstead fire station said: “She was alright, but it took us an hour to get her from the first floor to outside.

“She had an accumulation of health problems: she was bed-ridden and had bed sores, and she had a chest infection and a heart condition.”