AN ELDERLY man was taken to hospital after a gas lantern exploded in his face.

The incident happened at a house in Ironside Close, Chatham. The man and his wife had been using the lantern due to power cuts. Ambulance crews from Maidstone took the 80-year-old man to Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital where his condition is said to be "stable".

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue said: “The couple could smell a gas leak so put the lantern outside in their garden. The man went outside to inspect it, and it exploded.”

A spokesman for EDF Energy said: “Power was interrupted to several thousand customers in Chatham at 7.27pm on Monday after a fault on an underground cable.

“Engineers managed to restore final supplies at 8.43pm. We were most concerned to hear of this incident but had not been informed of this at the time.”