PART of the A12 was blocked yesterday evening after a car caught fire.

It caught alight on the southbound slip road at Hatfield Peverel around 6pm on Monday.

Eyewitness Peter Cross said: "I was driving home from Witham to Hatfield Peverel and went to come off the A12 and there were two cars stopped in front of me.

"Further up the car was on fire and then within a few minutes it was well alight, but the fire engines and police were there quite quickly.

"It caused real problems with the traffic while they sorted it out - some people were trying to get back on the A12 to go up to Chelmsford."

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was out within 16 minutes of it being reported.