An overweight woman had to be lifted through a window because paramedics couldn't carry her down the stairs.

The woman, who weighed more than 20 stone, was too heavy for paramedics to carry from her first-floor flat.

She was taken through the window of her home in the Seven Dials area of Brighton last night and taken down 15ft on a fire brigade turntable ladder.

She was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, for treatment for an asthma attack just after 9pm.

A friend of the woman, who is in her 50s, said: "She is registered disabled and has quite a few health problems. We have asked the council to rehouse us but we keep being told we are on the waiting list."

The friend, who did not wish to be named, has been acting as a live-in carer for the last five years.