A six-year-old girl was caught by a neighbour after she was dropped from an upstairs window to escape a house fire.

Christmas tree lights are believed to have triggered the blaze in the lounge of the home in Rufus Street, on the Queen's Hills development, in New Costessey.

Kim Gibson and her daughter Mollie were asleep upstairs in the home when the fire broke out at just before 11pm on Saturday night.

Mrs Gibson said: 'We were both in bed when I realised what was happening. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get Mollie out downstairs.

'There was a guy who lives in one of the houses behind us who had seen the fire and had come over. I dropped Mollie out of the window so he could catch her. It was awful, but he was amazing and caught her.

'I managed to make my way through the smoke and out of the back door. Me and Mollie went to hospital, but we were discharged quite quickly.'

The family are now facing having to celebrate Christmas in their kitchen, with the lounge gutted by the fire.

But the community of Queen's Hills has rallied around to help - firstly by helping clear up the house and then by raising more than £1,000 for the family through a JustGiving page.

More than 70 people have made donations, with comments such as: 'Such a scary thing to happen for you and your family. Really hope you can use this donation to get yourselves back to normal to enjoy your Christmas.'

Mrs Gibson, 31, said: 'The community of Queen's Hills has been a great support and we cannot thank people enough. The guy who caught Mollie has been round and we have had people come to help us clean up.

'And we have had people coming round donating things because Mollie lost a lot of her toys in the fire. 'We are insured, but we are hoping we can get Mollie a treat in the new year, because Christmas is going to be a bit hard this year. She's done really well and went back to school today.

'The fire service said they think it was a fault with the Christmas lights which started the fire and, if the lounge door hadn't been shut, the fire would have spread further, so I'm lucky to be alive.'