Tenants who were trapped in their own homes for more than seven hours after their front door jammed have demanded to know why it took so long for help to come.

The communal front door at 106 Bullingdon Road, Oxford — a block of 10 flats containing 26 residents — got stuck last week.

The door was jammed at 5pm and despite tenants calling an out-of-hours emergency number several times, no-one came to free them until 12.30am.

The company managing the flats on behalf of Cherwell Housing Trust has launched an investigation.

Emma Williams, 26, who lives in a first floor flat with her two children, said: “Our concern is that if there was a fire we could not have got out.

“There is a heavily pregnant lady in the building, if she went into labour, she would be stuck inside.”

Miss Williams discovered the door was stuck when she went to take her rubbish out.

She said: “We weren’t so much worried for our safety, but we felt it was disgusting that we had to wait so long when if there had been an emergency, we would not have been able to get out.”

Miss Williams said the front door was the only access point for residents, other than windows.

The lock has been removed so residents can go in and out freely, but it cannot be locked — posing a potential security risk.

Claire Franklin, 32, was also trapped in her ground-floor flat, with her partner and six-year-old daughter, and said she was furious at the way the problem was dealt with.

She said: “I am disabled and if I had to get out of my window in an emergency, it would have been possible, but it would not have been easy.

“Failing to send anyone sooner was dangerous, reckless and very unprofessional. I am outraged.”

She said she was told there were no engineers available earlier and was instructed to call the fire service in an emergency.

Miss Franklin said: “I am very angry about the whole thing.”

Laurinda Hornblow, regional operations director for Dominion Housing Group, which owns the housing trust, admitted the delay was “unacceptable”.

She said: “We sympathise with the residents in Bullingdon Road who were inconvenienced on Sunday due to a faulty door.

“We are working with the maintenance staff who dealt with the fault to ascertain why it took so long to resolve the issue, and to ensure it does not happen again.

“It is certainly unacceptable residents were inconvenienced in this manner, as we strive to provide the best possible service to them.”

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk