Firefighters managed to prevent train travel chaos by stopping a blaze from reaching the tracks.

About 18 officers spent more than two hours tackling a fire on a grass railway embankment near Gravesend’s Met Police training centre, in Mark Lane, at around 7.30pm yesterday.

The blaze extended to an area of about 100m, but two fire crews from Gravesend and one from Swanscombe managed to prevent it spreading to the tracks.

A firefighter at Gravesend station said they had to tackle the fire on foot with equipment on their backs because they had difficulty reaching the embankment.