A young boy was in intensive care with horrific burns last night after he and two friends were caught up in an explosion on Teesside.

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

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

Neighbour Paul Pitt was one of the first on the scene and found one of the victims - a 12-year-old - with extensive burns from head to toe.

"When I got there, there was a lad on the floor outside writhing about," he said.

"He was in a right mess. His legs were burned and bleeding. I have never seen anything like it. His hands were all burned, his face was charred, his lips were quite burned, his hair looked like an upturned hairbrush and his trousers and clothing were burned."

Another neighbour, Alison Burniston, had knocked at Mr Pitt's door and asked him 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, first checked that the house next to the shed was clear of people and fire, before tending to the injured boys.

He said the youngest, an eight-year-old, had burns to his face while the other boy, also aged 12, seemed uninjured but was seriously shaken and scared - he would be in trouble with his parents.

He wrapped the seriously injured boy, who was shouting and screaming, in a blanket.

A woman resident from the house adjacent to the shed, thought to be the brothers' mother, is understood to have left for work five minutes earlier.

It is thought that normally the boys would have gone to her mother's house.

Modest Mr Pitt, who produces the Echo's Paul Recommends series of town guides, played down his heroic actions: "I am actually off sick at the moment, but there was no one else around. Anyone would have done the same.

"I am a father-of-four myself, and I can't imagine what their mothers are going through. It must be awful. It shows how these things happen - she was only gone for five minutes."

Last night a police spokesman declined to release the boys' names.

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

The eight-year-old, who suffered facial burns, is waiting to see a plastic surgeon and is expected to be detained for two or three days.

The other 12-year-old was last night released after treatment.

A spokesman for Cleveland Fire Brigade said an investigation into the incident would start today