THE M6 was closed for seven hours last night after a man died when his car veered off the motorway and burst into flames.

Police say the 58-year-old man from the Warrington area appeared to lose control of the blue Renault Megane at junction 29, near Bamber Bridge.

The car collided with a bridge he was driving under, rebounded into the carriageway and burst into flames at 8pm.

A number of drivers stopped to get the man out of the vehicle, but they were beaten back by the flames.

Insp Graham Smith, the force incident manager for Lancashire Police, said the northbound carriageway was shut until around 3am as accident investigation officers tried to establish the cause of the accident.