A grandmother claims job centre staff ignored her pleas to end an assessment interview because she was having a heart attack.

Chip shop worker Salena Hannah started getting chest pains during the assessment at Salisbury Job Centre in Wiltshire this month.

She said staff carried on despite her complaints she was feeling unwell and she was too scared of having her benefits cut to leave the 40-minute interview.

Salena Hannah, pictured with her grandson Josh Greenough, says her pleas for medical attention during a Job Centre assessment were ignored

The 50-year-old was later taken to hospital where doctors said she had suffered a heart attack and inserted stents into her arteries.

Ms Hannah said: 'I was feeling some really bad pains in my chest and I told her at least two or three times that I was in agony, but she just kept ignoring me.

'I said I needed to go to the NHS walk-in centre immediately, but it fell on deaf ears.

'I was living in fear of being sanctioned and just felt trapped. I didn't think I could leave or I would have my benefits stopped.

Ms Hannah is pictured in hospital recovering from the heart attack she says started during her interview with Job Centre staff

'I was sweating profusely and must have looked very ill. I was with my grandson, and he looked concerned, but she didn't.

'The way I was treated in that interview was a total disgrace,

'I was so worried about losing my benefits that I didn't just get up and leave to go to hospital. I just sat there having a heart attack.'

She said of her treatment at hospital: 'They did some blood tests and told me I had suffered a heart attack, my first ever. They inserted two stents into my artieries and I was kept in hospital for three days.

'Eventually they let me out and within an hour of being at home, the pains returned and I went back to the hospital, this time they inserted three stents, and kept me in for a further few days.'

Ms Hannah works part-time at a chip shop but claims Employment and Support Allowance to get by.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions denied that staff would allow a clearly ill woman to go without medical attention.

The spokesman said: 'We would always encourage claimants who suddenly fall ill to seek medical attention, or to speak to a member of staff for assistance.'

Friends have compared Ms Hannah's incident to that in the 2016 film 'I, Daniel Blake', in which a carpenter is deemed fit to work despite suffering a heart attack.