Hair tongs explosion

Four schoolgirls are fighting for their lives after they were burned in an explosion feared to have been caused by gas-powered hair tongs.

The girls suffered between 29 and 41 per cent burns, mostly to their hands and faces, after a fire broke out in a house in Llanelli, south Wales, on Tuesday.

The two 14-year-olds and two 15-year-olds are on life-support machines at a Swansea hospital.

A plastic surgeon said the injuries were consistent with an explosion of a small gas canister and that the girls would need extensive surgery.