The Transport Ministry has attributed an hours-long delay for the reopening of part of the Marsa-Ħamrun bypass on Monday morning to “safety concerns”.

Traffic was reduced to a crawl after a lane was closed when a car caught fire at around 5am.

But by 9am, motorists were still reporting heavy traffic in the area and Transport Malta officials said all traffic congestion had cleared by 10:25am.

Responding to questions about the delay, a Transport Ministry spokesperson said it was "due to several safety concerns."

She said that although one lane of the bypass was reopened as early as 5:30am, and two lanes by 6:45am, CPD officials determined that the road was still unsafe for immediate use due to engine oil, fuel leakage and water used to extinguish the fire.

The spokesperson said those hazards required extra caution, extending the time emergency services were on site.

“By 8:45 am, all lanes were reopened, but traffic remained heavy  due to residual congestion”, she said.

Civil Protection Department (CPD) director-general Peter Paul Coleiro said fire crews “responded normally” to the emergency arriving at the site in “between six to eight minutes.”

He said they extinguished the fire and treated the road surface with sand and oil dispersant – which is used to stop the road surface being slippery after a spill – in under half an hour.

After they left the site, however, authorities inspecting fire damage to the asphalt road surface discovered diesel seeping from the area, requiring CPD personnel to be called back to the scene, Coleiro said.

“Realistically, we couldn’t have predicted it,” he said, adding that fire crews used “a lot” of dispersant after returning to the site.

By this time, however, rush hour traffic had started, delaying fire crews from immediately reaching the area.

Despite the delay, CPD personnel were on site within “around 25 minutes,” he said, adding that multiple fire engines were dispatched to the scene to increase the chances of a quick response – something he said was standard practice in emergencies.

The CPD were called back to the site at around 7am and left the scene at 8:45am.

Car was being driven by a 17-year-old

Informed sources told Times of Malta the driver of the car that caught fire was a 17-year-old boy, who, it is understood was accompanied by passengers.

They all managed to exit the vehicle before the fire got out of control.

No injuries were reported and investigations are understood to be underway.