BRITAIN'S busiest motorway is closed after a car caught fire in a tunnel - with drivers facing horrific delays.

The blaze happened in the right hand Dartford Tunnel on the M25 near junction 31 this morning.

Congestion has built back along the route anti-clockwise to junction 2 for the A2 and the Darenth Interchange.

National Highways is reporting delays of approximately 30 minutes in the area.

Cameras show motorists in gridlocked queues on the approach to the Dartford Crossing.

A spokesperson for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said: "We were called to a vehicle fire near the Dartford Tunnel today at 9.33am.

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"Crews from Grays (two), Brentwood and Southend are in attendance and are extinguishing the fire."

Traffic and travel monitoring service Inrix states: "Long delays due to earlier car fire on M25 anticlockwise after J1a A206 (Dartford Tunnel). Congestion to J3 M20 Swanley Interchange.

"The right-hand tunnel was closed for over an hour, until just after 11:00."

The M25 is a major orbital motorway that surrounds Greater London and sees a huge volume of traffic each day, with some sections seeing over 200,000 vehicles every 24 hours.

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