Brave neighbours ignored their own safety to break into a smoke-filled flat amid fears a mother and baby were trapped inside.

They thought Letitia Hero and her five-month-old son were unconscious inside the first-floor flat because they could hear her mobile phone ringing as they frantically tried to contact her.

Two men broke down the door while upstairs neighbour Aminata Koroma, 18, alerted firefighters to the blaze in Hampden Court, Chesswood Road, Worthing, on Saturday morning.

They rushed into the choking black smoke coming from the one-bedroom flat. They shouted for Letitia and checked the rooms but found nobody inside.

The neighbours were given oxygen before being taken to Worthing Hospital where they were treated for breathing in smoke.

Miss Koroma said she heard the smoke alarm and put her head to each of the front doors in the apartment block as she made her way downstairs to find out where the sound was coming from.

She said: "When I realised which flat it was I peeked through the letterbox and saw a lot of smoke.

"I knew the girl living there has a baby so I thought maybe something had happened to them. I rang and banged on the door but there was no answer.

"I screamed for two of my neighbours because the flat was so full of smoke.

"I called my friend Isata to get her to call Letitia's mobile as I didn't know the number.

"When we heard it ringing inside I thought she might be lying in there and something had happened to her."

Isata Kamara, 21, rushed from her home in Durrington Gardens, Goring, when her friend did not answer the phone.

She said: "I thought something terrible had happened because she always picks up her phone.

"I threw some clothes on and got a taxi there straight away."

The drama was caused by burning food left on the cooker.

Miss Hero, 21, said she had become worried when she realised she had not turned the cooker off as she was making her way home from shopping in the town centre with her baby son.

She said: "By the time I got back there was no smoke but I saw the door and the policewoman was waiting to explain what had happened.

"My neighbours were amazing coming in like that and it's good to know I live where people look out for each other."