Amazing escape for bus passengers as double decker bursts into flames

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The driver of the doubledecker number 43 ordered them off after he saw smoke coming from the engine.

As they alighted, the blaze spread and within minutes it had engulfed the back of the vehicle. No one was injured, but the Archway Road was shut in Highgate, London, for an hour from 7pm as firefighters tackled the blaze, which is thought to have been started by a fault in the engine.

Witness Stuart Freeman said: "I saw the back of the bus was on fire but it was only slight. People were still getting off. Then the flames started getting bigger and bigger, coming through the engine.

"About a minute later the whole back of the bus went up."

A spokesman for Transport for London said it is carrying out tests to see how the fire started.