Firefighters battled a “large” fuel tanker fire on a motorway.

The blaze started at 7am on the M25, near junction 5, leading to the link road onto the A21.

In a post on X at 9.30am, National Highways said the link road from the M25 onto the A21 southbound had reopened.

It said: “Lane one of two remains closed on the M25 clockwise onto the A21 southbound for recovery and clean-up.

“Delays of 90 minutes remain on the M25 clockwise.”

Kent Fire and Rescue Service said: “Four fire engines attended and crews, wearing breathing apparatus, used main jets to extinguish the flames, which were only contained to the front of the cab part of the vehicle.

“Crews worked hard to prevent the spread of fire to the tanker part of the vehicle.

“There were no reported injuries and the cause is not yet known.”

Earlier, crews said the tanker had been moved to the hard shoulder but that commuters should avoid the area as traffic was starting to build up in both directions.

Firefighting efforts were completed at 8.39am.

Police officers were also called to the scene with highways officers.

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