Car park inferno

Photo: Emma Dougal

FIREBALL: the Audi A3 goes up in flames

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TERRIFIED shoppers abandoned their trolleys and fled last night after a car in Tesco’s Huddersfield Road underground car park burst into flames.

The store was evacuated at around 6pm and dozens of shoppers left stranded outside for 90 minutes as firefighters tackled the blaze.

A short circuit caused the fire in an Audi A3, destroying it and a Nissan Micra parked alongside. A Ford Fiesta was also affected as the flames spread. Shoppers reported hearing explosions as the cars went up in flames.

Customers parked on the top floor were escorted to their vehicles. The 24-hour store did not reopen until this morning.

The shocked Audi owner, Jane Cawdron (28), from Moorside, was devastated at the damage — but thankful her two-year-old daughter Phoebe hadn’t been in the car.

She had been due to pick up her daughter before calling at Tesco but after getting stuck in traffic her partner collected Phoebe instead. “She would have been in the car if I’d picked her up as planned, which makes me even more shaken.

“I’d just finished my shopping and tried to start the car when it started smoking. It was popping and banging and then just set on fire. It all happened really quickly.”

Miss Cawdron moved away from the car and called the fire service: “I felt so bad for the other car owners. It makes you feel like you’ve shut down the whole supermarket.”

The Micra owner said: “I was shopping when everyone came out. I didn’t know it was my car that had gone up. I can’t believe what’s happened.”

Customers were initially told to make their way on to the top floor, above the fire, before being led back down and out through the main road entrance.

Smoke went into the foyer of the store but there were no injuries.

The store manager declined to comment.