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A mum-of-three whose electricity was cut off was told by a heartless housing worker to heat her six-week-old baby 's bottle under her armpit.

Katrina Best, 22, said she was left with no choice but to place her two youngest children in the care of a relative after her electricity was cut off for a week at her flat.

She called L&Q Housing to complain because she had no facilities to heat the milk for her baby Lilly May.

Katrina says she was down to her last £10 and has since moved out of her flat and is sleeping on her mum's floor with her eldest son Archie.

She said she was outraged by the comments made by one of the people from L&Q who attended her flat to take a look at the fuse box.

She said: "I am disgusted. I even got told to put my daughter's baby bottle under my armpit to warm her milk up.

"I am on my last £10 now and I am not paid until next week. I have had to give my two youngest kids to their paternal grandmother.

"I miss them and have been crying."

(Image: Waltham F Guardian / SWNS)

Katrina, who is mum to Archie, four, Harvey, one and Lilly-May was diagnosed with scoliosis at birth and has 12 pins in her spine.

She claims to be "in agony" sleeping on her mum Eileen's hard floor near her home in Leytonstone, east London.

Mum Eileen, 53, said of her daughter's flat: "It's a death trap.

"If Archie was to get up in the night to go to the bathroom he would have to go down steps and there are no lights.

"It is not safe. There are wires hanging out of the fuse box which is at a child's level. It could be dangerous if a child pulled it.

"The flat is not suitable for Katrina. It's classed as a two-bedroom, but one of the rooms has a boiler in it so how can a child sleep in there?"

(Image: Waltham F Guardian / SWNS)

Katrina says she has been trying to get a bigger home for the past month and is unable to bid for one because she has not received a bidding number from L&Q.

She added: "It is extremely difficult.

"It's a pain because there is only one bedroom to share between me and three kids and we have just enough room for a bed and two cots."

A spokesman for L&Q said: "We apologise for the delay in reinstating Miss Best's electricity.

"Our contractors and the electricity company have attended the property several times and we are addressing this as a matter of urgency."