Exploding custard, rice pudding truck sends driver running!

London, September 28 : A truck driver, who was transporting 60, 000 tins of custard and rice pudding to a local supermarket, was forced to desert his truck when it began to explode.

Not knowing that his HGV had caught fire, the driver was forced to stop by the passing motorists on the A382 in Chagford, Devon.

Soon after he fled the truck, the 26 tonnes of Ambrosia custard and rice pudding cans began exploding 'like thousands of gunshots', reports Telegraph.

Though the fire crews arrived within a short span, they were unable to do much since the desserts had already burnt out while the truck itself was consumed within 20 minutes.

"The first we knew about it was a whiff of smoke and burning sugar and then suddenly it just erupted," Jill Pendleton, an eyewitness, said.

She said: "It was incredible how quickly the fire caught hold - the whole thing was over in less than 20 minutes.

"When the heat reached the tins they started to explode and we could hear what sounded like thousands of gunshots.

"There were two huge explosions which we think were either the airbags or the diesel tanks.

"The driver seemed very shaken."

However, a spokesman from 'Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service' has revealed that there were no casualties and the incident itself was accidental in nature.

ANI