This is the terrifying moment a gas cooker exploded in flames as a chef cooked chicken curry at a restaurant.

The mother-of-two was busy preparing meals in the cluttered kitchen when the accident happened in Pattani province, southern Thailand on August 7.

CCTV footage shows how the chef, Mae Cheelee, was putting different ingredients into the pots to prepare a delicious massaman curry with chicken.

However, as the woman stood near the gas cooker to bring out the food, flames burst out from the valves and burned everything on the table.

The woman ran back to the gas cooker to turn it down and threw a wet cloth to stop the fire. Her worried son heard her cries for help and run in to help her stop the flames.

Relieved daughter Asanee Chelee, who returned home later that day, said: ‘I wasn’t there when it happened. My mother told me the restaurant ran out of gas so she asked my brother to replace it.

‘Maybe the gas valve wasn’t turned down completely when my brother was changing the gas tank. So when my mother went back to cook, a fire burst out.’

The chef suffered small burns on her hands and ankles after the accident. Their family restaurant had to be shut for two days to repair the damage in the kitchen.