A CABLE thief was nearly killed when he received a 4,000-volt shock as he tried to rip out wires.

Emergency services were called to the derelict Trafford House office block in Cherrydown, Basildon, after getting reports of an explosion in the building’s generator room at 4am yesterday.

The man suffered a hole in his hand and severe burns to his face, hair and body, after trying to remove cable, while it was still directly connected to the mains supply.

Police say his injuries were so bad some of his clothes had melted to his body.

The man somehow managed to stagger three-quarters of a mile from the office building to Basildon Hospital, where he told hospital staff there could have been other injured people still in the building.

The man was then transferred to the burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

Police found about 30 homeless people sleeping in the building at the time of the blast.

Sgt Paul Costin, who is leading Essex Police’s campaign against metal thefts, said: “Words fail me that someone would put themselves at so much risk for so little reward.

“We have a number of operations in place to disrupt metal theft,.

“These include taking action against scrapyards who do not keep the correct paperwork and against carriers who do not have the correct licences.

“Anyone who does not comply with the law will find themselves in front of the courts.

“We will also be liaising with the owners of Trafford House about security, but I would urge people to stay out for their own safety.”

Emergency services were called to Trafford House and firefighters went in to search the building, wearing protective suits.

Inside the generator room they found someone had been trying to remove core cable which was directly connected to the 4,000- volt mains supply.

The force and heat of the explosion had welded the thief’s tools to the wire and the electricity box.

They also found was a trail of blood on the floor.

Firefighters searched the building and discovered 30 rough-sleepers in the building.

None of them had been injured and they found no fires.

It is understood that Trafford House’s owner, Criterion Capital, is planning to beef up security at the site from next week.

The Echo contacted head of construction Andrew Whitehead, but was told Criterion’s policy was not to talk to the