A farmer has spoken of the frightening moment when he realised a fire had broken out on his premises.

Fred Sharman was driving from Norwich back to Manor Farm in Repps when he saw a 'glow' in the distance and realised a fire had broken out on his property.

Firefighters were called to the huge blaze at 8.20pm yesterday (Tuesday) after more than 50 tonnes of straw caught light, and crews from Acle, Great Yarmouth, Martham and Stalham took it turn to work through the night to get the flames under control.

Mr Sharman said he spotted the blaze from his car.

'I popped to Norwich at 6.30pm and was on the way home about 8.30pm and coming back on Rollesby Heath and I could see a glow in the sky and thought, oh my God there's a fire. My first thoughts was it was the farm itself,' he added.

Fire crews were still on the scene 12 hours after the initial 999 call and the remains of the straw stack were still smouldering this afternoon.

The fire was first thought to have been started deliberately but later confirmed by police as accidental.