A FAMILY of five had a lucky escape after their car burst into flames four days about it was bought off eBay.

Neil Green was driving his wife and three children to a relative’s house in a 2006 Peugeot 207 on Sunday, October 1 when he heard a ‘faint bang’ while in Winnington Lane.

He says it was only when he was repeatedly flashed by a car behind him that he noticed the underside of his vehicle was in flames.

The 37-year-old told the Guardian: “It wasn’t that loud a noise so I just carried on but then two people behind us were basically telling me to pull over and as I looked out my window I realised there was a problem.

“At that point your natural instinct just sets in and you do your best to get away. I told my wife, Mel, not to panic and we just focused on getting the kids out of the car as quick as possible.

“Everyone has been stressed about it and the children are all 12 and under so they’ve been quite upset and are still talking about it before bed.”

The Anderton resident paid £900 for the vehicle and gave the seller, who was from Congleton, a lift home after it had been dropped off on Wednesday, September 27.

Neil then used the car in the following days to do 60 mile round trips to work but did not think there were any problems.

He said: “You wouldn’t have thought there was an issue with it, the situation’s not ideal but it’s a piece of metal that can be replaced. I’m just glad no one was hurt.

“I suppose the weirdest part was seeing people film the fire on their phones as we were waiting rather than help us out.

“But I would like to say thank you to the two people who pulled us over. They were really helpful and without them we might not have been so lucky.

“The fire brigade said they think it was an electrical fault so there’s not a lot we could do. I still need a new car but I think next time I’ll go to a dealership instead.”

A Cheshire Fire spokesperson said: “At 2.09pm on October 1 firefighters were called to Winnington Lane in Northwich following reports of a car fire.

“One fire engine from Northwich attended. Crews, two wearing breathing apparatus, used a hose reel jet to put out the fire.

“Police officers attended to help with traffic management while firefighters extinguished the fire.”