Firefighters were called to a car fire in central Watford this afternoon.

Crews from Watford’s red watch used one hose reel to put out a burning Volkswagen Passat on Market Street, close to the Harlequin shopping centre.

The driver is understood to have only recently collected his car from the garage where it had undergone repairs and was taking it for a test drive when it caught fire shortly before 5pm.

Dave Elliot, Watford watch commander, said: “There was some oil leaking onto the exhaust which started a small fire.

“It could have been a lot worse but luckily the driver did the right thing by stopping immediately and calling us and because we are close we were able to get there very, very quickly.”