A 'SERIOUS incident' involving three vehicles on fire on the M42 motorway near Bromsgrove and Redditch caused hours of delays for drivers.

The blaze, which occured at around 8pm on Sunday (July 9) resulted in three vehicles catching fire on the southbound motorway between J1 for Bromsgrove and J2 for Redditch.

The fire spread to a large goods vehicle, rupturing its fuel tank and spilling diesel across all three lanes.

It has since been revealed that one person was tragically killed in the crash. Read our full story here.

Hereford and Worcester Fire Service attended the scene and, once they had finally extinguished the blaze, police conducted an investigation which ran into the early hours of this morning (Monday).

More than 36 traffic officers from Highways England and its supply chain's workforce worked throughout the night and into this morning to support emergency services by managing and diverting traffic.

A spokesman for Highways England said: "Having assessed the scene while police investigations were still underway, it was established that the fire caused substantial damage to lane 1 and the hard shoulder.

"The necessary resources were put on standby to arrive on scene at 04:53, to coincide with the conclusion of the police investigation."

The operation required more than 30 tonnes of resurfacing material to carry out the repair and lanes were closed while the new surfacing cooled.

Highways described the incident as a 'very difficult and testing' one for emergency services.

Drivers were forced to wait in queues of up to three hours while emergency services cleared the scene and resurfaced the roads.

All lanes are now open and resurfacing works on the road have been completed.

Traffic is now running as usual.