Oil depot explodes in Hertfordshire!

A huge fire has been raging after a series of explosions ripped through an oil storage depot in what is thought to be the largest incident of its kind in peacetime Europe. Miraculously, only two people were seriously injured among 43 casualties, after flames shot hundreds of feet into the sky following the blasts at the Buncefield depot, near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, police said.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, from Hull, tonight visited the scene of the blasts, the first of which happened just after 6am at the fuel terminal in Leverstock Green, close to junction 8 of the M1. The force of the incident could be heard up to 100 miles away sparking fears of a terrorist attack or a plane crash. But Hertfordshire Police Chief Constable Frank Whiteley said they were treating the incident as an accident.

The M1 has been closed both ways between junctions 6a and 12 and may remain shut tomorrow morning. Motorists have been told not to go "anywhere near the M1 from the M25 upwards". At Heathrow airport, some flights were forced to delay landing because of smoke, but Luton airport was said to be operating as usual. The Buncefield depot is a major distribution terminal operated by Total and part-owned by Texaco, storing oil and petrol as well as kerosene which supplies airports across the region. The country's fifth largest fuel distribution depot, it is also used by BP, Shell and British Pipeline.