A LORRY driver had a lucky escape when his vehicle was engulfed by fire on the M20 at Aylesford. Firefighters say the driver, who was on the London-bound carriageway, pulled to a halt on the slip road at junction five after he noticed his engine was revving more highly than usual.

As he did so, the glass screen behind him in the cab cracked and he noticed flames coming from underneath. He immediately got out of his lorry and, fearing it was about to explode, tried to prevent traffic using the slip road.

The slip road was closed while fire crews from Strood and Halling tackled the blaze. Father Michael Woodgate, assistant priest at St Francis' Church in Maidstone, who drove past the scene shortly after the fire took hold, said: "The whole of the front part of the cab was ablaze. Had anyone been inside they would not have survived."

There were no injuries, but the lorry, whose load of flour had been unloaded just before the fire broke out, was destroyed.