A stretch of the north-east’s busiest trunk route will be closed for hours after a car burst into flames and damaged the surface.
All lanes along the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness route, in both directions, have been blocked off at the Kintore roundabout.
Emergency serviced were called to the scene at about 4.30pm after a silver Vauxhall erupted into flame.
A police spokesman confirmed that the road would be closed “for some time” as officials from Bear Scotland, which looks after the country’s trunk roads, arrived to inspect the damage the molten wreckage caused to the surface.
The spokesman said: “The road remains closed, as Bear Scotland is attending to check for heat damage to the surface.
“Some of the debris is understood to have burned into the road itself.”
A spokeswoman for the fire service added that crews from Inverurie attended to extinguish the flames and had got the situation under control by 4.50pm.
