People are being warned to shut their windows as firefighters are at the scene of a lorry fire on a major south Essex road.

Six crews have been working to extinguish a fire within a 40ft container on the A13 northbound in Aveley.

Gazette: Photo: Essex Fire and Rescue ServicePhoto: Essex Fire and Rescue Service (Image: Essex Fire and Rescue Service)

A spokesman for Essex Fire and Rescue Service said: "Please avoid the area if you can and if you are driving nearby, please keep your windows shut as there is a lot of smoke coming from the scene."

Gazette: Photo: Essex Fire and RescuePhoto: Essex Fire and Rescue (Image: Essex Fire and Rescue)

Firefighters expect to remain on scene for several hours.

One lane of the A13 northbound is closed while crews deal with this incident.

Firefighters have been working with the lorry owners to extinguish the product within the container.

After using the lorry to tip the product from the container, the owners have been using a grab lorry to spread the product so firefighters can extinguish the fire.

The incident has been scaled down to two crews who will remain on scene monitoring hotspots while the lorry owners reload the lorry.

Gazette: Photo: Essex Fire and Rescue ServicePhoto: Essex Fire and Rescue Service (Image: Essex Fire and Rescue Service)

Station Manager Dave Bond, incident commander said: "Thank you to everyone for their patience while we deal with this incident. Crews have worked as quickly as they can to extinguish this fire and we hope to have the scene cleared within the next hour.

"Thank you to the lorry’s owners and our colleagues in Extreme Rescue for helping us at the scene."