Dozens of elderly disabled people had to crawl downstairs on their hands and knees or stay marooned in their rooms when a sheltered housing complex lift broke down for 11 days.

The problems for about 40 residents in the three-storey complex at Derby Place, Thornbury, worsened last week when the mechanism on the building's entry system became faulty.

They were unable to open the door for visitors by pressing the buzzers in their rooms.

The lift and entry system were finally back in order on Friday but residents said they were appalled by their treatment and apparent lack of concern for their needs.

As an inquiry was launched today, Bradford North MP Terry Rooney said: "It is an absolute outrage. Vulnerable people appear to have been put at risk."

He called for an immediate explanation from Geraldine Howley, chief executive of Bradford Community Housing Trust, which took over all the Council's 26,000 houses, complexes and flats earlier this year.

"In these circumstances the lift ought to have been working again within 24 hours. I would like to know what sort of maintenance contract they have," said Mr Rooney.

Mrs Howley said she would ask Tim Doyle, director of Bradford North Housing Trust which owns the property, to hold a full investigation into the circumstances and apologised to residents for the delay.

Mrs Howley said the Trust was about to start a major refurbishment programme in the district's sheltered housing schemes which included new lifts, accesses and door security systems as part of its multi-million pound district wide improvement schemes.

Retired lecturer Rowland Bell, secretary of Derby Place residents' association, said: "The lift was faulty for five weeks and people had been getting trapped in it.

"When it finally came to a halt a lady resident and her son were in it and we had to help them out.

"When we rang the number given on the lift to report problems we were just told in an offhand way that they were waiting for a part. Most of the people here are disabled and we pay £77 a week for rent and services.

"All the floors are occupied and people like to get down here for lunch and to meet their friends. Some of them have had to stay in their rooms all this time. We want to thank the Telegraph & Argus for taking up our case."

Acchradevic Sharma, 80, who walks with a stick and crawled backwards down the stairs from her third floor home on her hands and knees, said she had been terrified of falling. She said she had stayed in her flat since the lift stopped working.

Dorothy Richards, 77, said she had cut her leg going upstairs and 84-year-old Eva Hunt, who lives on the first floor, said she was petrified.

"I came to live here 18 months ago after I fell down three attic steps. It took all of the confidence out of me," she said.

A spokesman for North Bradford Community Housing Trust said the lift had an intermittent electrical fault which needed to be traced. She added that they had received the part they were waiting for last Thursday and restored the lift on Friday.

"We apologise to the residents for the inconvenience," she said. Pictured in the lift are Florence Hemmingway, Dorothy Richard, Brenda Brown and Eva Hunt.