The distraught wife of a furniture stripper who fell into a vat of caustic soda was today keeping vigil at his bedside.

Frank Bland was in a critical condition on a life support machine suffering from horrendous burns and damage to his eyes after he was drenched from head to toe in the substance which was being heated in an 8ft by 3ft tank.

The full version of this story appears in Monday's Telegraph & Argus and will be posted on this website on Monday evening (UK time).