FIREFIGHTERS answering a 999 call to a house blaze arrived to find four young women perched on a bay window roof in sub-zero temperatures.

The shivering women escaped through a front bedroom window onto a narrow, sloping, lead covered roof section, which was barely spacious enough to hold them all.

They were brought down by firefighters with ladders, and given oxygen before being taken to Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital.

It is thought that no one was seriously injured in the incident at Maidstone Road in Rainham. The women are all in their late teens or early 20s,

The fire broke out in a bathroom area on the ground floor at about 4am on Thursday and is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault. There was damage to laundry equipment and smoke damage to other parts of the property.

FULL STORY IN FRIDAY'S MEDWAY MESSENGER