A YOUNG brother and sister miraculously escaped without injury after being plucked from a car which exploded into a fireball moments later.

Grandmother Madeline Penn grabbed five-year-old Blaze and Storm, two, from the back seat of the vehicle after it developed engine problems in Chatham.

In a desperate bid to avoid an accident Mrs Penn and the children's mother, Zoe Stephens, tried to stop rush-hour traffic as black smoke billowed across Chatham Hill. Outfits worth hundred of pounds, which were bought in Canada especially for a family wedding this Saturday, were destroyed.

Mrs Penn, 48, from High Halstow, near Rochester, stopped the car in a bus lane and led her distressed grandchildren back to their home nearby in Whitehorse Hill.

It was when she returned to her Fiat car with Mrs Stephens that they heard an "almighty bang" and the vehicle exploded into flames. She said: "I am just happy I managed to get the children out in time. I feel very shaken but fortunately nobody was hurt.

The family was returning from a shopping trip in Chatham town centre to buy more wedding clothes when the accident happened.

Although it has marred plans for the ceremony in Romford Essex, it will go ahead as planned.