A MAN had a lucky escape when a gas cylinder exploded at his Heaton home.

Christian Holland, aged 37, was testing the cylinder -- designed to fuel a camping stove -- with a lighter at 4pm yesterday afternoon when it ignited.

Firefighters attended the Ducie Avenue flat, which suffered mild fire damage. There was a fire damaged table outside the block of flats this morning.

A fire spokesman said: "Mr Holland was quite shaken up when we got there and his smoke alarm was going off. He had a very lucky escape."