The Gazette can reveal the man at the centre of the gas explosion at Drill Hall Road, Sunday lunchtime has been air lifted to a specialist hospital in Wiltshire

65 year old Alan Barlow received flash burns to his hands and face after he attempted to light his kitchen cooker.

Drill Hall Road was cordoned off for over 2 hours whilst fire crews and gas engineers dealt with the fractured gas main.

A doctor and a nurse accompanied Mr Barlow on the 15 minute helicopter journey to the specialist Odstock burns hospital in Salisbury.

Mr Barlow’s face was covered in burns dressings and his hands in plastic bags when he was loaded in coastguard rescue helicopter 1104 from Lee on the Solent just after three thirty this afternoon( Sunday May 9).

A spokeswoman for Odstock hospital said “Mr Barlow arrived by coastguard helicopter and is being assessed by the on -call specialist burns doctor and responding well to treatment”