Seven youngsters were lucky to be alive today after escaping from a blazing house in Banbury.

The youths were in an upstairs room when fire broke out in the mid-terrace property in Dover Avenue just before 8pm yesterday.

They managed to make their way downstairs through heavy smoke, and were later given counselling by the Red Cross, along with a parent from the house.

Firefighters from Banbury, Deddington and Rewley Road, Oxford, wearing breathing apparatus, finally brought the blaze under control using a main jet and two hosereels.

Two other properties were also slightly damaged in the fire, which is believed to have been started accidentally.