TWO police officers had a lucky escape when their patrol car burst into flames whilst responding to an emergency call.

The officers were driving along the A168 at Asenby near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, with sirens blazing when their marked BMW suffered what Sgt Paul Cording described on Twitter as a “catastrophic engine failure”.

Fire crews from Thirsk and Ripon used two hose reel jets to put the blaze out on Saturday morning.

Luckily neither officer was injured in the fire and they were later back out on patrol in a replacement vehicle.