A car burst into flames at the start of the morning rush hour today.

Firefighters were called to Clapham Hill, Whitstable, just after 7.30am after the engine of the Volkswagen people carrier caught light.

It sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky over the town.

VIDEO: Firefighters tackle the car blaze

A single crew from the Whitstable station had the blaze under control seconds after arriving.

No one was in the car, believed to have been driven by a young woman, and no one was injured.

Reporter Alex Claridge was driving to work at the office of KentOnline's sister paper the Kentish Gazette at the Estuary View Business Park when he spotted the blaze.

He said: "It was fairly going when I pulled off the road to video it.

"There was no one inside and the few people standing around were keeping a safe distance - which is good because after about 30 seconds the intense heat inside popped the rear hatch open.

"Two firemen had it under control in seconds, but it would have been completely written off by the blaze."

The car was in a side road off the main A290 Whitstable to Canterbury road and did not affect other drivers making the morning commute to work.