One northbound lane of the M1 remains closed after a car caught fire in the middle of the carriageway earlier today.

London Fire Brigade was called to extinguish the blaze at 11.25am near junction two of the motorway.

A black Mercedes saloon was completely destroyed in the fireball.

It is not clear how many people were in the car at the time, but firefighters spent 15 minutes dealing with the flames, which damaged to the road surface.

Two inside lanes were initially closed, causing traffic to back up for up to a mile, but the middle lane has since been reopened.

The Highways Agency remains on the scene to carry out repairs to the road surface.

The closure is not dramatically affecting the low level of traffic at this time.

London Ambulance Service was not called to the incident and there were no injuries reported.