Thousands of people faced traffic chaos in Oxfordshire on Tuesday after a beer lorry caught fire and a bus crashed.

Ten-mile queues built up on roads in and around Oxford after an 11-mile stretch of the M40 was closed for six hours.

Police shut the northbound carriageway of the motorway between Wheatley and Wendlebury while firefighters tackled the blazing trailer.

The articulated lorry was carrying 25,000 bottles and cans of Budweiser lager, which exploded in the heat.

Tailbacks stretched back miles as drivers were diverted off the motorway to the A40, the A34 and the Oxford ring road.

The fire broke out after one of the lorry's tyres blew out.

The driver managed to unhook his cab unit from the trailer but then the bottles and cans burst into flames, sending clouds of thick, black smoke across the carriageway.

Fire crews from Bicester, Thame and Wheatley tackled the blaze. A water carrier from Slade Park fire station was also sent to the scene to keep the pumps supplied.

A JCB was called in to unload crates of beer from the trailer.

Station Officer John Fathers, of Oxfordshire Fire Service, said: "It was a difficult job and a long-drawn out affair.

"Although the lorry was on the hard shoulder, the carriageway had to be closed, to let us to extinguish the flames and allow the vehicle to be unloaded."

Thames Valley Police spokesman Rachel Wiseman said: "The cargo had to be unloaded before the lorry could be removed, so it was a lengthy recovery.

"A lot of traffic had built up along the A40 into Oxford and it caused a lot of problems and disruption for drivers."

An investigation into how the fire started is under way.

A collision between a bus and three cars on the A40 at Headington roundabout at 11.10am then added to the chaos.

Insp Peter Shepherd, of Thames Valley Police, said: "There was gridlock around Oxford.

"It was a terrible coincidence to have had the two incidents at the same time. Traffic was at a standstill from the roundabout to the M40."

The bus is thought to have been empty at the time and none of the car drivers was hurt.

**A woman was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, after her car, another car and a lorry collided in Southwold Lane, Bicester, on Tuesday.

She was trapped for half-an hour and had to be cut from the wreckage by fire crews. Her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.