THIS is the dramatic moment a car went up in flames and was engulfed by smoke in Bristol Street this morning.

A fire crew from Swindon was called at 8.46am and found the car well alight and completely destroyed.

Two breathing apparatus wearers used one hose reel jets to tackle the blaze.

Passerby Mark O'Brien saw what happened. He said: “I was driving to work, just dropping off a friend Murray Stevens, and discussing my son Jake’s seventh birthday, when on the horizon I could see plume of smoke.

“We were both very concerned at this point, and as I drove nearer and nearer to my local car parking area something changed in the air.

“There was an acrid smell of burning rubber and fuel. Then like a flash a fire engine whizzed past and the local hero fire department were on the scene to extinguish the flaming car. Thank goodness nobody was hurt.”

A police spokesman said the fire is not being treated as a suspicious and may have been a mechanical fault.