Tens of thousands of commuters faced massive disruption today when rail services on some of the country's busiest routes were cancelled or diverted because of a huge fire.

The blaze broke out in buildings at New Cross, south-east London, close to a busy railway junction.

No Southeastern services were running into London Bridge, Cannon Street or Charing Cross this morning with some trains being diverted to Blackfriars or Victoria. The disruption is expected to last all day.

The company urged passengers to check before travelling and to consider delaying their journeys.

The company normally runs 1,400 trains a day into and out of London, carrying 200,000 people.

Palls of smoke could be seen for several miles from the blaze which broke out in the early hours of the morning.

Almost 50 firefighters were called to the blaze which broke out in the early hours of the morning and were still not under control hours later.

The London Fire Brigade set up a 200m exclusion zone and hundreds of local people were evacuated from their houses.

The fire brigade said 60% of the building where the fire broke out was alight.

The fire is believed to have started in a car repair workshop and spread to an adjacent chemical storage area.

Several explosions were reported on the site at the height of the blaze.

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "This is a massive fire which is causing huge amounts of problems for us and for passengers trying to get to work."