Police are trying to rescue a woman trapped in her own home after her ceiling apparently collapsed under the weight of years of hoarding.

Newham Recorder: Hoarder's houseHoarder's house (Image: Archant)

Officers and firefighters were called to reports of a 61-year-old woman trapped in a house at around 11.13pm on Suffolk Street, Forest Gate, after the front room ceiling caved in.

When they arrived, they found mountains of furniture, papers, and junk spilling out of the windows on to her front drive.

Police said the house was full of rubbish and described the woman as a hoarder.

After a structural engineer deemed the house safe, the police had to enter through the back garden because entering through the front door was too dangerous.

Next door neighbour, Isabelle Cruz, 51, said: “She is really nice, such a lovely woman. I’m just so upset that she’s trapped in there.

“I said to her, ‘I’m cleaning my house, I can get someone round to do yours. Come round for a cup of tea’ but she never did.”

An urban search and rescue dog from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service has also been sent into the house to look for the woman but no casualties were found when fire crews left at 7.30am this morning.

Ahsan Anwar, 24, who lives on the other side of the house, said: “I could tell just by looking at the windows that it was like that inside.

“I’ve lived here since 2003 and I’ve never spoken one word to her. She keeps herself to herself.

“When I go to work in the morning, I’d see her come outside to put her make up on but I didn’t know why.

“I never dreamed I was living next to something that bad.”