Police spokesperson:

At around 3am this morning, Police were advised by Fire and Emergency New
Zealand of a truck fire on the shoulder of the Southern Motorway, northbound
just past the Papakura on-ramp.

The truck was carrying highly flammable gas in cannisters and these have
exploded over all of the north bound lanes and into the bush on the side of
the road.

The motorway is blocked but thankfully, no one was injured.

Around 15 homes were evacuated as a precaution but have since been allowed to
return home.

The Southern Motorway remains closed northbound and is not expected to open
for some time. There is a significant amount of debris to clean up off the
road and the fire is still burning out.

There are diversions in place but as commuters will understand, this is going
to cause significant delays and we would strongly advise people to avoid
travelling this morning if they don’t need to.

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