UK tourists tell of inferno horror

Survivors gathered outside the hostel

British backpackers have told how they escaped from a blazing Australian hostel where at least 15 young people died.

At least 10 Britons - including five English, two Welsh and two "Irish", though it is unclear whether they were from the north or the south - are believed to be among the dead or missing tourists.

They had been in working in Childers, 185 miles north of Brisbane.

Survivor Keith O'Brien, 22: "Lucky to be alive"

About 20 Britons were among the survivors, the Foreign Office said. Some fled the building in their underwear as the fire blazed out of control, shattering windows.

Keith O'Brien was among 62 survivors who fled the 100-year-old timber Palace Backpackers Hostel after waking to the chaos of the inferno.

He escaped after being dragged through a window.

Australian emergency numbers

Main no: 00 61 741 26 22 22

Police no: 00 61 733 643 561

"We're doing fruit picking and they usually wake you up in the morning if you oversleep, so at first we thought that's what it was," he told Sky television.

"You couldn't see your hand, the smoke was so thick."

He said he had trouble getting out of the burning building because of bars on some of the windows.

English survivor said the tragedy had wrecked people's lives

"I ended up kicking the door in, a big old door, and had to climb out a window to a verandah," he said.

"I shoved my friend through and she got pulled out and then some of the firemen yanked me out."

Another English backpacker, identified only as Emma told how she realised there was a fire as soon as she woke up, and screamed at her room-mates to get out.

"I heard a tremendous sound of cracking glass, it sounded like somebody was trying to break into the place, and I screamed at the four other girls in my dorm," she told Australian radio.

Alarm raised

"One of the girls woke up and screamed fire, another tried to open the door but her hand got burnt. We ran out onto the verandah... escaped onto the roof of the shop next door.

"The other people that were getting out were starting to scream."

Local paper editor Wayne Heidrich, who was among the first on the scene, said survivors were sitting outside in shock when he arrived.

He said two British girls were grateful that another English backpacker had ran up and down the hallway raising the alarm.

Firefighters said it was not yet known what caused the fire, which broke out in the upstairs section of the large, two-storey building early on Friday.