Fire crews have battled a huge barn fire which took then 10 hours to extinguish.

A large barn in Southend Road, Rettendon, containing agricultural machinery was completely on fire yesterday at 2.40pm.

Southend Road had to be closed so crews from Great Baddow, Rayleigh Weir, Halstead and two from Chelmsford could battle the blaze.

At 4:15pm the officer in charge reported the fire is surrounded and under control.

At 7pm, the initial crews and fire engines were replaced with new crews and three new fire engines. Firefighters are continuing to tackle the fire.

The fire was extinguished at midnight.

Two crews remained at the scene for a further two hours to check all the hot spots were completely extinguished.