A YOUNG landlady trapped in a blaze at her pub may have been the victim of a petrol bomb attack. The woman, who had only recently taken over the Green Lion in Rainham High Street, was upstairs asleep as fire ripped through the bar.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus rescued her with a ladder after neighbours heard frantic cries for help from her bedroom window. The pub has been closed since the fire broke out at the weekend.

The woman, named Heather and in her 20s, is staying with relatives nearby after being treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.

Police are investigating the incident which they are treating as arson. A 52-year-old Rainham shop assistant, who did not want to be named, said she had heard that it had been started deliberately.

She said: "I heard it was petrol bombed. I think it was thrown through a window. If that was the cause I can't think why someone would want to do that."

Simon Archer, manager of the White Horse pub across the road, said: "Heather came into the pub the day after the fire and she seemed shaken up, but I didn't ask her about it. I heard something about a petrol bomb too, but it could have been anything."

All four of the downstairs windows of the three-storey pub are encased in mesh, along with the front door. Firefighters took more than an hour to control the blaze.