An explosion in New Eltham sent an elderly couple flying halfway across their house.

Residents from as far as two streets away felt tremors from an explosion at a house on Telford Road at around 9.45pm last night.

An elderly couple were taken to Kings College Hospital Trauma Centre following the blast.

Terry Pring, 60, of Telford Road, said that the explosion caused his house to shake from the foundation.

He added: "I'm 60 years old and I've never experienced anything like it, I thought a bomb had gone off.

"My friend from two streets away came over to see what happened because he'd heard it."

After hearing the explosion, Mr Pring and his son rushed across the road to find the homeowner, named locally as 86-year-old Frank, stumbling around inside.

Mr Pring said: "Poor old Frank was in such a state of shock, he was picking things up that had been knocked over and trying to tidy up. We told him ‘you've got to get out’.

"My son and his friend helped get Frank out then a few of us carried his wife across the road to be treated by a nurse."

He added: "I've never seen anything like it, all the doors had been blown off and the bay windows had been blown to the other side of the street but most of the electrical items like the TV were still working.

"The house looks in a really, really bad way. Structurally it's a mess."

According to Mr Pring, Frank was suffering from burns to his hands and his head whilst his wife was in a worse way and had a nasty gash on her head.

He added: "I heard Frank was putting the kettle on when the explosion happened and he was thrown halfway across the room.

"His wife was sitting in the front room and she was thrown against the wall, hitting her head."

Patricia Scott, 82, of Telford Road, experienced the explosion from further down the street.

She said: "I'd just gone to bed and I heard this terrible explosion, it was like the war days.

"There was such a hullabaloo out there, at one stage they told us we might have to be evacuated."