THE cause of a blaze which ripped through a coach carrying the Worcester Warriors rugby team to a match is still not known.

As reported on the front page of your Worcester News yesterday, some members of the rugby team revealed they felt ‘lucky to be alive’ after fleeing from the fire on the M5 on Saturday morning.

The squad were travelling to a pre-season friendly at Ospreys in Swansea when smoke was seen billowing from the back of the Astons coaches bus.

The bus pulled onto the hard shoulder between junctions 14 and 15 and thankfully everyone on board managed to escape unhurt. Despite losing personal belongings and their kit, the team went on to play the fixture, losing 23-19.

Yesterday no one from Astons coaches was available to comment.

But a spokesman for Avon Fire and Rescue Service said about 30 firefighters had been called to the scene and it had taken about 40 minutes for them to put out the blaze.

Although the cause of the fire is not yet known, the spokesman said that firefighters were confident it was ‘accidental’.

Yesterday their decision to go ahead with the fixture earned the players praise from readers.

Commenting on your Worcester News Facebook site, Allan Price said: “I bet the players moved faster to get out than they do to get in free to Bushwackers or Sin on a Saturday night.”

Mark Wherry added: “Fair play to them for playing afterwards I say. I think they’d deserve a pint in Bushwackers after that.”

Amanda Jane Tyler: “OMG. Glad the warriors are ok. Fair play to them for playing after that.. C’MON YOU WARRIORS!!!!!”

Vicky Pullam said: “Wow – hope everyone was ok.”

And Mags Leighfield wrote: “We drove past it on the way back home. There was nothing left of it.xx”

Among readers to comment on the story on our website worcesternews. co.uk was whyme, who said: “Hopefully they’ll be on fire all season. COYW!”