A fast food restaurant in Moray was evacuated after a car burst into flames in the drive-through.
Late night diners in the McDonald’s branch in Elgin were told to flee following the blaze, which reduced the vehicle to a burnt-out wreck.
Customers were ordering meals in the store before being alerted to the inferno burning just yards away outside.
Last night, police revealed an electrical fault had caused the blaze, and confirmed nobody had been hurt.
Crowds gathered in the car park as the flames burst through the vehicle, extensively damaging the wall of McDonald’s.
Witnesses who saw the emergency unfold said they had never seen anything like it.
One said: “I don’t know how nobody got hurt. They were very lucky.”
The A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road was closed outside the restaurant while emergency crews worked to tackle the blaze into the early hours of yesterday morning.
A message posted on the McDonald’s store’s social media accounts told customers it would remain closed “until further notice” but the branch was able to reopen again on Sunday evening.
Yesterday morning the restaurant remained taped off while parts of the drive-through shelter hung off the building after being subjected to the intense heat.
A police spokesman said: “We were alerted to the incident by the fire service at about 11pm on Saturday. The A96 was closed to traffic at KFC, the premises was evacuated, nobody required medical attention.
“There was smoke damage to the building but nothing structural. The A96 remained closed until about midnight.
“The fire service was satisfied that an electrical fault in the car had caused the fire.”
A fire spokeswoman said: “At 11pm on Saturday we were alerted to a car on fire at McDonald’s in Elgin.
“We used two breathing apparatus, two hoses and one thermal imaging camera at the scene. We left at 12.45am.”
