A mother suffered burns to her face after a cocktail of chemicals exploded as she tried to make cleaning fluid for her home swimming pool.

Louise Mills, 36, sustained damage to her eyes in the horrifying accident, which happened in front of her mother and two young children.

She was carrying a bucket of water mixed with chemicals to pour into the pool in her back garden when it exploded.

Louise is now calling for better safety warnings to be placed on the cleaning kits, which are widely available in High Street shops.

Although she accepts she should not have mixed the chemicals in the same container, Louise is angry the labelling did not warn of the potentially lethal consequences.

She said: "I know I made a mistake but I would never have bought the kit if I knew the chemicals were capable of causing an explosion.

"It's fair to say I should not have done what I did and I regret that but it's an easy mistake which anyone could make.

"I don't think the general public would expect something like this to happen to you if you do get it wrong.

"I dread to think what would have happened to my children if they had been carrying the bucket."

Louise said she followed the instructions on the cleaning kit to weigh two separate chemicals, based on the size of her pool, and put them in empty margarine pots.

She added: "We put some water into a mop bucket and then my daughter tipped the chemicals into it, which we realise we shouldn't have done.

"Putting them into a small area like a bucket caused the problem. But the instructions said to dilute the chemicals which we did.

"I was carrying the bucket towards the pool in the garden but the water started bubbling and foaming right to the top.

"I realised something was wrong but before I could do anything the bucket exploded into my face."

She was left with agonising burns and had to be taken to hospital while the fire brigade decontaminated the garden.

Louise bought her plastic circular swimming pool, which is 15ft wide and 3.5ft deep with steps, for £300 from a shop specialising in domestic pools and spas.

At the same shop she also bought the Sunspot Water Care Kit, which is designed for cleaning domestic pools, for £45.

The kit contained a 1kg pot of stabilised chlorine granules and a separate small container of Bio Shock Rapid, an oxidiser containing calcium hypochlorite, as well as litmus test strips for monitoring the chemical levels in the water.

The kit is designed to kill insects and germs in the pool. The label says: "You will find everything you need in the kit to start enjoying your pool."

Louise's mother, Jennifer Baker, 60, who was standing yards from her at the time, said: "It was really awful. Louise was about to put the bucket down but there was a loud explosion and it went off in her face. Some of the neighbours said they heard the explosion from quite a distance away.

"Louise was obviously in a lot of pain. She couldn't speak, she could barely breathe and she had a burning sensation inside her mouth. I started hosing some water into her face to try to wash away the chemicals while one of the children went to fetch a neighbour who is trained in first aid.

"She carried on hosing water on to Louise's face and bathed her eyes while I rang an ambulance."

Louise was taken by ambulance from her home near Battle to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

She was kept in hospital for treatment to her eyes and face.

The coating over the front of her left eye has been burned away and her right eye is also damaged.

She is taking antibiotics and using eye drops.

The accident happened while Louise, her mother, her ten-year-old son Henry and her daughter Tessa, nine, were making the most of the evening sunshine at the family home.

A crew from Battle fire station was sent to the house to decontaminate the area after it was reported as a chemical incident.

Station Officer Jan Ingram said: "A woman suffered chemical burns to her face after a bucket containing some chemicals exploded as she was carrying them. When we reached the house one of the neighbours had administered first aid to the woman, which proved very effective.

"It seems she had been mixing together chemicals in a bucket, which is not advisable. However, I understand she felt the instructions on the packet containing the chemicals were not clear or detailed enough."

A spokesman for BioLab UK, the company which distributes Sunspot kits in this country, said: "There are clearly marked safety precautions in at least three different areas within the kit including on the outside of the box itself, on a leaflet inside and separately within the packages of chemicals.

"We are part of the largest international supplier of swimming pool chemicals in the world so we can tap into some excellent resources on the safety issues and labelling."