A JOINT investigation between the police and fire service is to be launched after a huge fire broke out in Blackburn over the weekend.

At around 5pm on Sunday, six fire engines, police and ambulance personnel were mobilised to the former V10 Polymers site on Paterson Street in the town.

Crews spent several hours tackling the blaze which involved 100 tonnes of plastic, and thick black smoke plumes could be seen rising into the sky, with residents in the area advised to close their windows and doors.

Great Bolton Street and Mosley Street were closed by the police and at around 6.10pm a spokesperson for the force said: "We are also asking for people to avoid the canal footpath between Highfield Road and Grimshaw Retail Park close to Asda in Blackburn which has been closed."

At around 8:50pm the incident was scaled back, and by 10.20pm it had been closed.

However fire crews remained in attendance throughout the night to ensure no pockets of fire were present.

Four years ago, the plastics factory caught fire twice in the space of a month with Paterson Street, Moseley Street and Highfield Road closed off by the police.

At the time the smoke could be seen by morning commuters on the M65 with around 30 homes evacuated as the inferno spread across the former V10 Polymers site in the early hours of September 27 2017.

Although the cause of the fire has not yet been established, fire chiefs believe it was set deliberately.

A spokesperson for the police said: “There will be a joint investigation into the cause of the fire."