A group of ten holidaymakers had a lucky escape when gas from a canister explodedon their hired boat.

The party from London, believed to include three children, had hired the 25ft-long launch for a day out on the Thames.

The explosion happened shortly after they set off from Benson Waterfront boat-hire company, near Wallingford, on Saturday morning.

Assistant divisional fire officer Tony Prosser said the fibre-glass launch Eclectric had passed Benson Lock and was heading towards Wallingford when someone lit a methylated spirit stove in the cabin.

"The flame from the spirit cooker is colourless," said Mr Prosser. "Another member of the group may not have realised it was alight when he began attaching a small LPG cylinder to a camping stove on the table, next to the methylated spirit stove."

Gas from the cylinder ignited and caused an explosion.

Firefighters commandeered an off-shore power boat to reach the blaze.

Four people, whose names have not been revealed, were taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. A ten-year-old boy and a woman in her 20s suffered burns. None of the injuries is thought to be life threatening.