A BURNING van caused traffic to crawl up the A13 last night.

The red Vauxhall Astra van caused the Brentwood Road slip road onto the A13 eastbound to be closed after it caught fire at about 5.15pm.

Traffic was reportedly slow moving all the way up to the A1012 exit from Stifford until at least 7pm while firefighters tackled the blaze and the van was removed.

One fire crew from Orsett extinguished the fire with a hose reel by 5.49pm after the incident was reported by police and remained on the scene for a further five minutes while the van was damped down.

No-one is believed to have been hurt in the incident.