Witnesses have captured the moment thick black smoke and bright orange flames poured out of a Hedingham bus after it caught fire in Coggeshall this morning.

Two fire engines from Colchester were sent to reports a blaze had sparked in a double decker bus in Church Street.

Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after 8.20am and closed the road to tackle the fire.

Colchester Sixth Form College student Holly Everett, 18, was travelling to town on another bus and saw the drama unfold.

She managed to capture footage of the fire from where she was sitting on the top deck.

“It was crazy – not what you expect to see on a Tuesday morning. We saw what looked like steam coming out the back of the bus to start with but it just got worse and worse.

“The bus driver had managed to get out safely and he had his hazard lights on.

“The problem was then that the wind caught up and that made the fire worse.

“The smoke coming out of the side of the bus was really thick and black and the flames were bright orange.

“The firefighters managed to put it out by about 9.30am but the road was still shut so a lot of us just had to stay where we were, we missed a few lessons but it’s really lucky no-one got hurt.”

Fire chiefs said when crews arrived they found the bus driver and around 30 passengers had managed to get off the bus safely.

But witnesses said they could not see any passengers and as far as they knew the bus driver had been the only person on board.

Holly, who also managed to take pictures of the aftermath of the blaze, said the bus had been completely destroyed.

She added: “It was black and a lot of the bus had melted.”

Police and the fire service carried out an investigation into the cause of the fire, which was found to be accidental due to a fault with the vehicle’s engine.

No-one is believed to have been injured in the fire.

Representatives for Hedingham Omnibuses are yet to respond to our requests for comment.

Did you see the blaze? Email us here and tell us what you saw.