A NINE-year-old Bolton girl is recovering today from a huge electric shock which catapulted her across her room.

Lydia Power was hurled into the air and knocked out by the force of the 240 volt surge when she tried to plug in a lamp which had loose wiring.

Mother Alison Power said: "We were watching television when we just heard an almighty bang. The TV, the cooker and the CD player all blew. It was enough to give me a heart attack."

First on the scene was Lydia's sister Katy, aged 10, who found the dazed nine-year-old beginning to come round.

Mrs Power said: "Lydia was hysterical. She was white as a sheet, her hand was all black and she didn't stop shaking for about two hours. She didn't know where she was."

Lydia went to the Royal Bolton Hospital where she was given painkillers and kept under observation overnight attached to a heart monitor.

But the brave Devonshire Road School pupil, of Lonsdale Road, Heaton, was due to return school today after making a rapid recovery from her ordeal.

She told the BEN: "The bulb had gone in my room so I went up to the loft to get a lamp we keep there. When I switched it on it just blew up. It was the biggest noise I've ever heard. I can't remember anything else until I got to hospital.

"I'm OK now except I keep getting pains at the top of my chest."

Mrs Power added that since the electric shock on Wednesday night her daughter has also been slightly deaf in one ear, although it is hoped the effects will not be permanent.

Lydia now also has an understandable wariness of electrical appliances.

"She was asked to put the TV on and she didn't want to," said Mrs Power.

The mother-of-four said she wants to warn children not to simply help themselves to stored away electrical items.

She said: "The hospital staff said Lydia was very lucky. She was very brave."