A woman was tonight carried unconscious out of a smoke logged flat after a fire filled the property with toxic black fumes.

Four crews were called to the blaze in Stanley Street in Lowestoft at about 6pm and used breathing apparatus to enter the home of a woman, believed to be in her 30s.

Suffolk Fire Service's group manager John Tiffen said they arrived to find a severe fire in a ground floor flat in a housing association block.

'One person was missing and we sent breathing apparatus teams in to find her,' he said. 'They recovered her unconscious from a corridor and she was taken off straight away in an ambulance.'

The woman was taken to the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston.

Mr Tiffen said the fire started in a chair and the material had given rise to a lot of toxic smoke which she had breathed. A fire investigation had also been launched.

'Our concern was also that there are 19 flats and we had to make sure everyone was safe and accounted for,' he added.

Nathan McKernan, 19, off Newsons Meadow, Lowestoft, said: 'I was just sitting down with a friend who lives in a flat on the first floor when somebody knocked and said there was a fire downstairs. There was lots of black smoke coming up and we all went out the fire exit.'

The flat is said to be badly smoke damaged, but it was thought that the other residents, who had all been evacuated, would be able to return later tonight.