A woman was today being questioned by police after a pleasure cruiser exploded at a Canvey boat yard.

The 40-year-old from Basildon, who has not been named, was being held at Rayleigh police station after the incident at the Dauntless boat yard in Ferry Road.

Firefighters from Canvey and Hadleigh raced to the scene after the explosion at around 8.30pm yesterday.

The boat was moored half in and half out of the water and was well alight when the fire crews arrived.

It was so badly damaged fire investigators had to put off their inquiries to establish the cause of the blaze until this morning.

The coastguard sent a boat out into Benfleet Creek to check nobody was on board the blazing vessel.

Chief Insp Steve Bottrill, of Rayleigh police, said: "The boat had been worked on during the day and there was nobody on it at the time of the blaze. It was half in and half out of the water.

"The boat is now a shell and fire investigators were due to go to the scene this morning. A 40-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of arson."

The owner of the boat, who has also not been named, was said to be "very upset" today about the loss of his boat.

Paul Redman, boss of the Dauntless boat yard, said the boat was moored at the yard although it was not being repaired by his boat building firm.

Wrecked - firefighters survey the smoking remains of a pleasure cruiser after last night's drama

Picture: NICK ANSELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.