A van caught fire in a huge explosion inside a tunnel underneath a runway at Manchester Airport, causing travel chaos.

Firefighters were quickly on the scene of the blaze which saw flights moved to the airport's second runway due to the smoke, prompting delays and diversions.

The tunnel on the A538 was closed along with the runway as fire crews battled the blaze last night after eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud bang.

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A huge explosion caused a fire to break out in a tunnel running underneath Manchester Airport

Firefighters were quickly on the scene of the blaze, which forced the closure of the tunnel

The fire was later extinguished and the van was recovered after firefighters checked over the tunnel.

Dale Beardsall was in the tunnel at the time of the fire and had to reverse out when he heard a loud bang and saw thick smoke coming out.

The engineer said: 'I was just in the tunnel, a few cars in. There was a lot of smoke and all the traffic had stopped. A couple of guys ran through the tunnel.

'They said "get everybody to back out". The cars behind us made way for a middle lane so cars could get through and get out of the tunnel.

The fire was extinguished and the van was recovered after firefighters checked over the tunnel

'I managed to back out of the tunnel in my car, but some people in cars in front had to get out of their cars and run out on foot.'

Manchester Airport said that at least seven flights had been diverted elsewhere because of the closure, and that there were delays for the 'majority' of flights.

She said: 'There is a fire in the road tunnels that go underneath the runway.

'The fire brigade are on scene at the moment dealing with the fire but due to the smoke we've moved our operations from runway one to everything on runway two.

Pictures showed heavy smoke in the tunnel on the A538 as firefighters battled the blaze

'We're just waiting on updates from the fire service before we can assess when to reopen.'

A Cheshire Police spokesman said a van had caught fire on Wilmslow Road, which tunnels under the runway. The fire brigade attended and put it out, she said.

Earlier yesterday, the same airport had to close a runway for snow to be cleared as the North of England was hit by bad weather conditions.

The runway was closed for less than half an hour and reopened by 9am. The closure caused some delays and some flights were diverted to other airports.