Tata Steel has been fined after an employee was showered in molten metal during an explosion at a steel plant in Rotherham.

The steel giant, based in Millbank, London, was fined £180,000 with costs of nearly £83,000 after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how the 49-year-old worker from Rotherham suffered life threatening injuries in the incident on 09 March 2012.

It is understood a control system fault caused 25 tonnes of molten metal to spill from a furnace at Tata Speciality Steel's premises in Aldwarke Lane, Rotherham.

The worker and a colleague began to hose water onto the spilled metal to cool it down. However, once the water made contact, a huge explosion occurred and the worker was covered in molten metal.

The man was rushed to hospital where he was placed in an induced coma in a specialist burns unit.

He required numerous skin grafts and reconstructive surgery to his eyes, ears and forehead. He has since returned to work, but cannot work in any high-temperature areas.

The court was told a few weeks prior to the incident, a fire had damaged the furnace control system which required a temporary fix until new parts were fitted.

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On the day of the incident, an electrician was asked to remove the workaround as it was though the fault had been fixed.

Prior to the explosion, molten metal was being poured from the furnace into a ladle underneath for the first time since the removal of the temporary fix.

As the metal poured, an alarm activated, locking the furnace into position. A furnace worker tried the emergency return, which should have returned the furnace and stopped the molten metal discharging, but this failed.

After the ladle had been filled and automatically moved away, the furnace continued to discharge a further 25 tons of molten metal into a pit below.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found 'serious' safety failings by Tata.

It discovered the company has no procedures for dealing with spillages of molten metal, no assessment of the dangers and risks had been carried out and there was no safe system of work in place.

HSE concluded this led to a situation where it became normal practice for workers to hose water onto spills. However, molten metal will explode if water penetrates the surface, a risk well known within the industry.

HSE Inspector Denise Fotheringham said: "This was a horrific incident that left a worker with life-changing injuries, which have had a devastating impact on him and his family. Tragically, it could have been avoided had Tata assessed the risks of dealing with molten metal spillages.

"The company's business is to make steel, but they had no procedures for dealing with these spillages, leading to employees using hoses to cool the metal. This was very dangerous but the scale of risk had not been recognised by workers, who had received no other information or instruction on what to do.

"The resulting explosion was massive and a man nearly lost his life. He remains badly-scarred by what happened that day.

"Tata no longer uses water to cool spillages and the risk has been eliminated. If the company had done this prior to the incident, this worker and his family would not be where they are today."

(LM/CD)