AN 11-year-old girl who received serious burns when her dress caught fire has had to have a skin graft operation to help her injuries heal.

Saliha Maqsood, was combing her hair in the living room at her home in Whalley Road, Accrington, when she backed into an electric heater in the fire place and her dress set on fire.

Her father Ahmed, 52, came running to help her when he heard her screaming and beat the flames out with his hands.

Saliha suffered burns to her abdomen, back, leg and arm and is receiving treatment at Manchester’s Children’s Hospital, where her mother Gazala is by her bedside.

Saliha’s sister, Mehvish, 21, said the operation had gone well but that her sister was in a lot of pain.

She said: “She is not ok - she had been kept without food for the operation so she was very weak.

“She is in a lot of pain. She was in tears and had to have an injection for it.”

Her father will also have to stay in hospital for a few more days so that staff can take care of his bandages after he suffered burns to his hands.

Saliha, a year six pupil at Hyndburn Park Primary School, had returned home from an Easter revision class for her Sats exams when the accident happened.

She was wearing a new maxi-style dress that she had only just bought.

Mehvish, who praised the work of the firefighters, said that as soon as her sister got to hospital, she was worried about how she was going to fit all of her school work in before she went back after the break.

She said: “She is really good at school. She wanted her revision books to be taken in for her.

“She can’t do anything at the moment but she has got exams coming up and she was really worried.

“We told her just to think about getting better first.

“We have taken all of her photographs in for her too because she is missing her family.”

Her cousin, Iram Sayeed, 21, said Saliha, who loves singing and dancing, had been traumatised by the fire.

She said: “She could be in hospital for a fair bit. It is possible that it could be a long healing process.”