First pic of woman in blazing flat jump

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'Traumatised' ... Monika Konczyk

THIS is the first picture of the brave woman who jumped out of her burning flat as an inferno raged in a furniture store just metres away.

Monika Konczyk, 32, was said to be "traumatised" last night after narrowly escaping with her life when she jumped 14ft from a first-floor window into the outstretched arms of riot cops.

Monika had stayed at home after her sister Beata Mecaj told her not to go out as looters roamed London on Monday night.

But after Monika got ready for bed, yobs torched the nearby House of Reeves furniture store — leaving her trapped when the flames spread to her block of flats.

Horrendous

Monika told a pal after the blaze in Croydon, South London: "I thought I was going to die. I thought I would burn to death."

A photo of Monika's leap from her flat above a chemist has become one of the iconic images of the destruction that spread across the country this week.

And Monika, who moved to the UK from her native Poland in March, told her friend: "It was horrendous. I was trapped inside my flat with nowhere to go.

"The flat was getting hotter and hotter, and when I tried to escape out of the front door the heat was just too much.

                           Narrow escape ... Monika survived the blaze at her block of flats by jumping into cops' arms

"I was panicking. All I could do was put my head out of the window and people saw me down on the street below."

Bystanders — including her sister Beata — managed to convince Monika to escape out of the window.

Beata, 37, said: "She is incredibly traumatised as she feels she narrowly escaped death.

"She is staying with me at the moment and I'm looking after her. It will take a while for her to get over this."

The sisters work at Pounland in the Croydon Whitgift shopping centre. But Monika has not returned to work since her ordeal and her family say she has become withdrawn and depressed.