Traffic was temporarily stopped on the motorway on Sunday after a car went up in flames.

Fire crews and traffic officers were sent to the M61 just after 7am after receiving reports that a vehicle was 'well alight' in the middle lane of the motorway.

Southbound traffic between junction nine for Brindle and the M65, and junction eight for Chorley was stopped so that firefighters could deal with the incident.

A spokesperson for the fire service said: "Two fire crews from Bamber Bridge and Chorley extinguished a fire involving a vehicle on the M61 motorway.

"The vehicle was in the middle lane of the motorway and well alight when firefighters arrived.

"They used two hose reels and breathing apparatus to extinguish the fire.

"Firefighters were in attendance around twenty minutes."

Luckily, the fire was extinguished within half an hour but a couple of lanes remained closed while traffic officers awaited recovery of the vehicle.

By around 8.30am, all lanes had been re-opened.