A nine-year-old girl was left with her legs dangling through the ceiling of the flat below after the floor boards collapsed beneath her feet.

Dad Clive Topazio had to bash down the door after hearing daughter Alexia yelling for help as the rotten timbers snapped as she got out of the bath.

The schoolgirl narrowly missed plunging from the first floor flat into the property below in Canterbury Street, Gillingham.

Clive said: "At first I thought she was singing, then I realised she was screaming. She was cut and quite badly bruised and shaken up. I dialled 111, but after about half-an-hour she managed to calm down. I was just relieved she came out of it OK.

"It could have been a lot worse. She could have broken bones."

The dad-of-three said he had made numerous complaints to his landlords Sittingbourne-based Angel Estates since moving in three years ago.

In the last few months he has also raised concerns about damp and mice at the home he also shares with daughter Tegan, 15, and son Lucas, aged eight.

After the incident last Tuesday he put up a makeshift board across the gaping 12-inch hole and has since been told the landlords would be making repairs.

He said: "I've been complaining about the floor boards for months. They are the slot-in type and the cover came away like paper."

He said fortunately his neighbour in the the flat below was not in when it happened and lives away a lot of the time.

Angel Estates, acting on behalf of the landlord, said they do not wish to comment.