When retired hairdresser Theodosia Aresti, 71, moved into a new-build flat in London five years ago, the frail pensioner thought she had found her dream home.

But after a blocked pipe unleashed a 'tsunami of sewage' from the nine-storey building's 239 other flats into her apartment, her hopes of a contented retirement were ruined - and she says she now hopes to move.

Mrs Aresti's nightmare began when she noticed a foul smell coming from her bathroom and discovered an unidentifiable brown substance bubbling up through the plughole in her bath.

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Traumatic: Theodosia Aresti was left devastated when her flat became flooded with raw sewage

'I always keep my bath clean and I looked down and all I could see was this brown stuff coming out,' she remembers. 'It was bad. It was very bad. Within half an hour, it [the bath] was over half full.'

But worse was to come. '10, 20 minutes later, the bath stopped filling but the toilet, it made a terrific noise and then, when I looked, it was half full.

'Then it started filling up and filling up and filling up. And then it was gushing out. It started flooding the flat everywhere.'

With raw sewage pouring into her flat, Mrs Aresti phoned her daughter Kiki and grandson Nicos and begged them to come to her aid.

She also got in touch with the company in charge of maintaining the nine-story block of flats to tell them that waste was pouring into her flat.

'I phoned the maintenance people and I said, it looks like sewage stuff coming out the bath. He said, sorry, no, no, no, you should get a plumber because I'm busy and it's Sunday.

Disgusting: The flood started with her bath, which started filling up with 'brown lumps'

Overflowing: Mrs Aresti's toilet began overflowing with sewage 'like a volcano' according to grandson Nicos

Revolting: The toilet and bath both began overflowing with sewage, flooding Mrs Aresti's flat in the process

'When the man arrived, it was too late. He was too late. Everything was ruined.'

Grandson Nicos Doukanaris was one of the first to come to his grandmother's aid and says the toilet resembled a 'volcano'.

'I came in through the front door and I could see the toilet,' he remembers. 'It was like a volcano, that's how bad it was. Just never ending. You could see she was visibly distraught.'

But worse was to come. Despite the best efforts of the plumber, who spent four hours trying to stem the tide of sewage, the excrement was strewn all over the flat and had soaked into carpets.

Worst of all was the mess in her bedroom which, according to daughter Kiki, both smelled 'foul' and 'was unhealthy' thanks to the sodden carpet.

Maintenance workers, however, were unable to visit for four days - leaving a distressed Mrs Aresti to sleep in a room filled with sewage for three nights.

Devastated: The disgusting episode has left Mrs Aresti desperate to find a new home

Furious: Mrs Aresti's daughter Kiki and grandson Nicos were took part in the clean-up operation

Damage: Mrs Aresti's bedroom carpet was soaked in sewage and had to be replaced afterwards

'The bedroom it was soaked,' she says. 'The carpet was full of sewage but I was still sleeping in there. It was disgusting. I felt dirty, I couldn't eat. All I was doing was just crying.'

Eventually, workmen came in to remove the carpet but when they lifted it up, the movement caused her wardrobe to collapse - soaking everything in it in sewage.

It was, says Kiki, the final straw for her mother. 'It was one thing after another and it just destroyed her flat completely,' she says. 'It almost gave her a nervous breakdown.'

Although Mrs Aresti's carpet has now been replaced and her flat fumigated, she says the experience has left her desperate to find a new home.

'If I could afford to move, I would move from here tomorrow because I just don't feel happy any more,' she says.

'But I don't know how I'm going to be able to do it. I'm just going to have to wait.'