A motorist had a lucky escape after his car suddenly caught fire and was engulfed by flames, hours after he had bought it.

Dramatic pictures show a car up in flames in a Weymouth Street.

The incident happened on Saturday evening (June 3) at around 5pm on St Leonard's Road.

The owner of the car, 21-year-old Adam Long from Portland, told the Echo he had bought the car from a trader earlier that day and it was his first car.

Adam was travelling in the car - a silver 2006 Seat Ibiza - with his brother at the time and luckily no one was hurt. 

Explaining what happened, he said: "It started misfiring and a engine warning light came on, so we were going to swap the spark plugs out and on way to Halfords the bonnet starting steaming so I pulled over on the road to have a look.

"Then it turned to smoke and turned to fire really quickly from there, so we just ran from the car and called the fire brigade, who managed to come quickly and put it out.

"No one was hurt at all and loads of people that lived on the street also came out with fire extinguishers before the firemen got there which was incredibly brave of all of them as it probably would have escalated to a much bigger fire if not for them."

A spokesman for Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue confirmed crews were called at 5.06pm on Saturday to reports of a car alight in St Leonard's Road. 

The spokesman added that the car was extinguished using two hose reel jets and with the help of breathing apparatus.

An eyewitnesses said that fireman soaked the house first, then extinguished the car fire, which took about 10 minutes. 

He praised the firefighters saying they did a "very professional job".
He added that is looked as though the car had just caught fire. 

Another eyewitness who lived on the street said: "We were just sitting in the living room when we heard a commotion outside. We looked out the window and two young lads were jumping back from a car.

"Two minutes later the whole front of the car was completely on fire. It happened really quickly. I think the lads were very lucky, it could have been so different."