A LONDON METROPOLITAN Police officer has been hailed a hero, after he saved seven people from a burning building last week.

At around midnight on Friday evening, PC Neil Dobson was on a routine job with his police dog, Monty, when he was alerted to a fire in a residential building on London Road in Croydon, south of London.

Dobson saw thick black smoke coming from the building and, after tying up Monty outside, rushed into the building.

Many of the residents were still asleep inside.

He found visibility poor and movement difficult due to the thick smoke. After failing to wake up residents from the hallway, Dobson managed to gain entry into the flats to alert them of the danger.

He carried on through the three floors of flats and managed to evacuate every resident safely, including a mother and baby.

The policeman suffered injuries opening doors and inhaled a considerable amount of smoke. No one else suffered injuries.

In a statement, the Met Police said: “Without PC Dobson’s thought for the vulnerable, sleeping people inside and quick action he took, the incident could have easily spiralled into tragedy.”

Dobson said that he didn’t understand how serious the fire had been until he saw an article the next day to say that the fire had completely destroyed the flats.

“It wasn’t till I read that, that I realised I’d actually probably saved some lives,” he said.