A woman asylum seeker who was terrified of being sent back to Pakistan committed suicide by setting herself alight.

An inquest in Bradford yesterday was told 22-year-old Nusrat Raza, of Otley Road, Undercliffe, died from 90 per cent burns after deliberately pouring white spirit over her nylon clothes and igniting them with a cigarette lighter.

Neighbours who saw her run out of a house on to Otley Road at 11.20am on June 28 engulfed in flames rushed to help before emergency services arrived. She died at Whiston Hospital, near Liverpool, four days later.

Miss Raza, who had entered Britain on February 13, 2005, feared a return to Pakistan after her asylum application had been rejected.

She was in the process of appealing the decision at the time of the incident.

Witness Mohammed Arif, who provided a room for Miss Raza in his home, described how she was distraught about being deported.

She had received a letter from the Home Office requesting more information days before she killed herself.

Mr Arif said: "She was very anxious that day and was asking what happens if it is refused."

Explaining the possible reason of her suicide, he said: "With that letter, it may have been the state of mind she was in. She was in a bubbly mood that morning but she could hide those things well. She changed. Sometimes she seemed depressed."

Miss Raza was due to marry her boyfriend, Abid Raza, who came to visit her regularly from Pakistan, said Mr Arif. "Her family did not approve."

Miss Raza set herself alight while she visited her boyfriend at his house and he ran to call for help as she ran out on to the street covered in flames.

In a witness statement, Bernadette Smith said: "I just passed the bus stop when I saw a person running outside of her house on the other side, who was on fire. She was screaming and wailing and flames were coming off the top half of her body."

Witnesses said she was taken back into the house where she was rolled on to the floor and doused with water.

At Bradford Royal Infirmary, Miss Raza told doctors she had dropped the liquid over herself accidentally in the kitchen, catching fire after she lit up a cigarette, said Detective Inspector Gerry O'Shea, of Bradford North CID.

But police and fire inquiries revealed that the incident had taken place in the living room, where a large spillage and burnt carpet was found.

West Yorkshire Fire Service's Keith Robinson, assistant divisional officer at the fire investigation unit, said there was no way a cigarette could have caused the fire and the only way of igniting white spirit was with a naked flame.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Bradford Coroner Roger Whittaker said: "It's a great tragedy that a woman with all the promise of life has died so tragically."

A spokesman for the Home Office said they would not comment on individual asylum cases.