Horror as glass cup full of tea exploded in woman’s face

The Asda store at Gosforth A woman says a glass cup full of tea exploded as she was raising it to her mouth.

Judith Hawdon said the explosion was accompanied by a loud bang.

It was so noisy Judith, who lives near Newcastle Airport, thought a plane had crashed.

She was injured in the incident but did not need hospital treatment.

The cup had been bought from Asda at Gosforth and was in use for the first time.

Asda have apologised and offered a small token of goodwill.

Judith, of Brunton Lane, Newcastle, said: “It was a bang like a bomb. The glass went everywhere.

“I had just bought it that morning and thought I would make a nice cup of tea. The noise was so bad I thought a plane had crashed outside.

“The dogs had such a fright they were running around the kitchen.”

Judith fell backwards and banged her arm on the side of the kitchen bench, leaving a bruise.

Her sausage dog Ziggy, three, and chihuahua Batman, eight, were showered in glass but were unhurt.

Judith and her husband Paul contacted Asda but were unhappy with the response from a representative of the company.

She alleged: “It was a strange call when he said they expect some cups to blow up because there is so much air in them.

“He waffled on about how the cups were tested but there was still an expectation that some of them would explode. I am worried it happened and they seem to think it is okay.”

Paul said he was unhappy with the way Asda handled the complaint about the £2 cups.

He said: “I rang Asda and they said to take the glass in, which I did.

“Asda gave Judith a £25 gift voucher which we did not want but they were insisting and said their head office would be in touch which didn’t happen. So my wife rang them and was put in touch with a claims investigator who kept asking what our expectations were.”

It was the claims investigator who allegedly made the reference to Asda expecting some cups to explode.

A spokesperson for Asda said: “All of our products are safety tested to ensure they are of the highest standards for our customers.

“Whilst we haven’t been able to look at the mug in more detail to understand what could have happened, we would like to apologise again to Ms Hawdon and hope that the gesture of goodwill we offered goes some way towards making up for this incident.”

The spokesperson was asked to comment specifically on the comments made by the claims investigator but said there was nothing more he wanted to add.

We recently reported on a spate of explosions of glass furniture bought at IKEA.

Richard Winship, of Hebburn, told how a glass top on a sideboard exploded when he was in another room.

IKEA said the tempered glass is designed to shatter in a way that leaves small cubes of glass rather than shards. The company said the explosion could have been caused by a previous knock or scratch.

But they admitted explosions could be dramatic because of the noise.