More than 50 firefighters fought a huge blaze at a scrap metal yard early today.

About 100 tonnes of metal, including old cars, were engulfed by the fire at the European Metal recycling yard in Planetrees Road, Laisterdyke.

The blaze broke out shortly before midnight and firefighters from across the district were still at the scene at 8am.

Arriving workers were greeted by the sight of plumes of smoke still rising from the pyre and the strong smell of burning metal.

Firefighter Julian King, of Bradford fire station, said at its height the blaze had been visible across Bradford.

"It was well alight when we got there at about 12.30pm. It looked like a funeral pyre with about 100 cars on top of each other."

The fire took two hours to bring under control with crews from Batley, Bingley and Cookridge still damping down this morning.

Mr King said the cause of the fire was unknown but it was not believed to be malicious.

"It was a big fire but it is not a residential area. It is quite out of the way."

Station Officer Steve Ackroyd, of Batley fire station, said he arrived with his crew at 4am to relieve some other shifts.

"It was a pile of scrap cars stacked about 150 metres long and 15 metres high on top of one another. They were waiting to be crushed but the plastic and the interior burns very well.

"The blaze started around 11.30pm and when we arrived it was still smoking. There was obviously a lot of heat and we carried on putting a lot of water on to cool it down but it was difficult in the dark because you could not tell what was steam and what was smoke.

"Today we are digging out individual burned cars, hosing them down and putting them into the crusher."

Planetrees Road was closed from its junction with Battye Street so that traffic could be diverted from the scene.

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