West Wing actress Mary McCormack has shared a video of her husband's Tesla which caught fire "out of the blue".

She posted a clip showing flames blasting out from underneath her husband director Michael Morris's car.

"@Tesla This is what happened to my husband and his car today," she wrote.

"No accident, out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.

"Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him."


The actress said the electric car "wasn’t a Tesla with auto pilot".

Image: Tesla say they are investigating

Sheriff's Lt. William Nash in West Hollywood said that deputies saw smoke coming from the electric vehicle and then fire.

Firefighters were called and managed to extinguish the flames.

Tesla said the incident was "an extraordinarily unusual occurrence" and said it is investigating.

The basic model of the Tesla Model S retails from £65,000 and above in the UK.

Mr Nash said the driver was out of the car and there were no injuries. He added that the fire could have been caused by a faulty battery.

Mr Morris was director of The Old Vic theatre in London from 1999 to 2002.