A WITNESS has described seeing a huge plume of grey smoke as a bus went up in flames on a busy roundabout.

Fire crews were called to tackle the double decker bus blaze at North Station roundabout, on Station Road in Colchester.

Upon arrival at 1.04pm, the bus was completely alight and two fire crews from Colchester fire station used two hose reels jets to fight the blaze.

One onlooker, described seeing clouds in the area and hearing small explosions.

They said: “At first, a huge plume of light grey smoke started to flood the area, a bit like fog with every few minutes a bubble of thick black smoke appearing from behind the Big Yellow Storage Company.

“From when I noticed the huge cloud of smoke, sirens of the fire brigade could be heard within minutes.

“There have been a few isolated incidents around the Mile End area with cars in flames, but this particular incident was obviously of notable size that it attracted a lot of residents like myself to come down and view the spectacle.”

Traffic built up on Northern Approach, and some vehicles used the nearby bus lane down Bruff Close to avoid the queues.

The fire was completely extinguished by 1.20pm and the roundabout soon reopened.

It is not yet known what caused the fire but it is thought no one was harmed in the incident.

Gazette:

Phillipa Parks took this picture of the blaze.