A YOUNG boy was in intensive care with horrific burns yesterday after he and two friends were caught up in an explosion in Dormanstown.

The boys - thought to be two brothers and a friend - were playing in a shed at a house in Stockdale Avenue on Wednesday when the blast happened.

Although details surrounding the accident remained sketchy, it is thought to have been fuelled by cellulose thinners.

Neighbour Paul Pitt was one of the first on the scene and found a 12-year-old boy with extensive burns.

Another neighbour, Alison Burniston, had asked Mr Pitt to call an ambulance after hearing the explosion and seeing the boy run into a front garden.

Mr Pitt, 33, a special features executive with The Northern Echo, checked that the house next to the shed was clear of people and fire, then tended to the injured boys.

It is thought that the brothers' mother had left for work five minutes earlier and that they would normally have gone to her mother's house.

A police spokesman declined to release the boys' names.

The injured boy, understood to be a pupil at West Redcar School, was yesterday in the intensive care unit of Middlesbrough General Hospital, his condition described as stable.

The eight-year-old, who suffered facial burns, was expected to be detained for two or three days. The other 12-year-old was released on Wednesday after treatment.

An investigation into the incident was due to start yesterday