SUFFOLK'S busiest road reopened this morning after being shut for around 20 hours after a van blew up near two petrol stations - sparking a military operation to avert a possible disaster.

SUFFOLK'S busiest road reopened this morning after being shut for around 20 hours after a van blew up near two petrol stations - sparking a military operation to avert a possible disaster.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Star, the A14 near Newmarket was turned to gridlock by the explosion in the vehicle, which was carrying a potentially-lethal gas cylinder, as fire-fighters faced a race against time to evacuate the filling stations and throw a 200m exclusion zone thrown around the area.