Saddleworth Moor fire: Firefighters tackle 'apocalyptic' moorland blaze in West Yorkshire

Firefighters are tackling an enormous fire on Saddleworth Moor in West Yorkshire.

Dramatic images showed huge flames rising from the hillside as witnesses described “apocalyptic” scenes.

The blaze, near Marsden, covers about one-and-a-half square kilometres, firefighters said.

Fire crews and two specialist moorland firefighting units were sent to the battle the flames after the blaze broke out at about 7pm on Tuesday.

Laura Boocock, West Yorkshire Fire Service's incident commander, told the BBC it was "one of the biggest moorland fires we've ever had to deal with".

It comes after Britain basked in unusually warm February temperatures in the past two days.

Fire officials have not yet commented on what the cause of the blaze may be.

A large gorse fire also broke out on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh at a similar time last night.

Last summer, an “unprecedented” blaze spread across Saddleworth Moor which took three weeks to completely extinguish as a scorching heatwave hit Britain.

Locals took to social media and told of their shock as they witnessed the latest fire.

Harry Broughton wrote on Twitter: “Never seen anything like this - had a drive up as these things look terrible.”

John Turner said: "There were lines of flames, like someone had put down petrol on the hillside and it was just a massive ring that went zigzagging up and down the hill and all around in a circle.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: "It's like the sky is on fire, almost. There was a group on the hill, just pulled over, and there were people saying 'it looks like the end of the world, it looks like the apocalypse is happening'."

The A62 has been closed between Colne Valley and Diggle in both directions as a precaution as firefighters continued to battle the flames on Wednesday morning.