A NEIGHBOUR of a woman who lived on a residential park near Malvern have described how he tried to rescue her as her home went up in flames.

The woman, named locally as Val Ashcroft, was killed by an intense inferno which wrecked her home at the Three Counties park at Sledge Green in the early hours of yesterday morning (Tuesday).

Ian Roberts, who also lives at the park, said that he spotted the fire when he got up early in the morning. Looking out of his living room window, he saw flames raging from Mrs Ashcroft's house.

"I rang 999 and rushed out. I was banging on Val's bedroom window, but I didn't manage to raise her," he said.

Fire engines from Ledbury and Upton, plus two crews from the Gloucestershire service, rushed to the scene at the Three Counties Park, Upper Pendock, after the alarm was raised at 4.42am.

On arrival firefighters donned breathing apparatus to tackle the fire with hose-reel jets and compressed foam.

Police and fire officers are working together at the scene to establish the cause of the fire.