A BMW caught fire yesterday afternoon on the motorway.

The male driver who was heading towards London pulled over between junctions five and six on the M3 because he noticed a problem with his car. He managed to escape when it went up in flames.

Firefighters from Basingstoke were called to the incident at around 3pm and spent 45 minutes extinguishing the fire, which was in the engine of the car.

John Clarke, crew manager at Basingstoke fire station, said: “The driver was quite shaken up but he wasn’t injured. There was danger of the smoke going across the carriageway so one lane was partially shut down. There was quite a lot of damage to the car.”