A woman who was left fighting for her life when her house blew up is being charged with arson.

Karen Queen, 34, suffered serious burns to 60 per cent of her body when her gas cooker exploded in April last year.

The entire wall of her second floor flat in Morton Close, Wallington, was reduced to rubble and lay in the front garden for days while investigators determined the cause of the blast.

Miss Queen, who has been living in a mental institution since her cooker blew up, has been charged with arson whereby she recklessly endangered life.

At around midnight on April 9 2011, nearly a dozen residents of the block of flats were forced to flee the building after hearing a huge explosion.

A pregnant woman with a child was among the evacuees who stood outside the flat, aghast at the devastation.

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 Queen 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."

"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.