Woman dies in house fire near lake

Police tape cordons off the property with emergency vehicles parked outside on Wednesday

A woman in her 80s has died in a house fire in Stoke-on-Trent, firefighters have confirmed.

Emergency services were called at about 20:30 GMT on Tuesday to reports of a blaze at a property in Pennyfields Avenue off Westport Lake Road in Tunstall.

Medics reported that nothing could be done to save the woman, and she was confirmed dead at the scene.

Police and fire service officials were still at the property on Wednesday, along with a police forensics van.

A local resident told BBC Radio Stoke her husband was one of the first on the scene after a passerby knocked on their door.

"It was just horrendous, what we saw," she said.

"Next door, he actually kicked the door in. He was amazing," she said. "It all happened so quickly; there was nothing anybody could do."

Staffordshire Police said a forensic investigation would take place at the property to work out the cause of the fire.