Firefighters rushed to Lakeside car park after a car burst into flames.

Two fire trucks went down to the shopping centre after three cars and a van were caught up in the fire.

One witness, Hugues Penaud, said: "It was quite bad, there was a big fire and it set three cars and a van alight."

The incident resulted in Car Park 5 being closed and it will remain that way for the rest of the day.

The fire department are reported to have extinguised the fire within 15 minutes of arriving.

A spokesman for the fire department said: "Firefighters were called to extinguish five vehicles on fire in a car park.

"Fire crews managed to extinguish the fire by 2:15pm.

"The fire started in the engine of one vehicle and spread to four others nearby.

"The vehicles have been badly damaged by the fire, but there was no injuries reported."

A spokesman for intu Lakeside said: “The Essex Fire Service responded to an incident in one of our car parks this afternoon. Firefighters were on site very quickly and thankfully no one was hurt.

“Car Park 5 will remain closed for the time being and we are working hard to minimise any disruption to our customers.”