A 31-year-old man narrowly escaped injury when his laptop caught fire.

The man was in the bath at his home in Lawford Way, Totton, and had left his computer charging on his armchair when it burst into flames at around 10.57pm last night.

His neighbours spotted the smoke and started banging on his door before finally breaking it down to find him trying to make his way down the stairs and ran in to help lead him out.

He was out when the appliances from Totton and Redbridge arrived and the man was treated for smoke inhalation and shock buy ambulance workers but said he didn't need to go to hospital.

The fire had spread to his armchair and damaged some other furniture and it took firefighters 20 minutes to put it out.

A Hampshire Fire and Rescue spokesman said: "The neighbours must have roused the man from his bath because there had been ineffectual attempts to put out the fire with saucepans and cups of water. It didn't take long to deal with."