A NEW Year Fireworks show came early after a truck carrying loads of crackers crashed in the middle of the highway.
Dramatic footage caught a barrage of rockets flying into the sky after the Mercedes-Benz lorry overturned and caught fire in Kazakhstan.
Thousands of pounds worth of fireworks lit up in what has been described as a stunning show of light that was seen from many miles away.
Firefighters arrived at the scene on the Almaty-Shelek-Khorgos highway to douse the flames of the late-night fire.
Fellow motorists stopped in the middle of the highway to watch the New Year show come early.
“It was a stunning display, the best I’ve ever seen,” said a female onlooker.
Cops said the driver of the lorry escaped and there were no other injuries in the accident.
An investigation is underway into the cause.
It comes after four people in a catastrophic car crash that sparked fireworks explosions in Russia.
Footage from the incident shows the moment the night sky filled with hundreds of fireworks as smoke billows from the burning wreckage.
The impact of the collision caused the truck to fall onto its side, sparking the explosions.
Two children aged eight and 11 were killed in the crash in Vozzhaevka, a village in Russia’s Amur region when a car smashed into a truck carrying fireworks.
The lorry driver sustained serious injuries and was rushed to hospital, reports have stated.
Firefighters and other emergency responders rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze, the Russian Emergencies Ministry reported.
The response team consisted of nine emergency workers and three vehicles.
The damage from the exploding gunpowder plunged the village into darkness as overhead electricity cables were torched in the inferno.
Locals rescued a cat that got badly scorched by the detonations.
It comes just three months after a firework factory exploded in the town of Elin Pelin, Bulgaria.
The huge fireball that sent a mushroom cloud into the air left workers suffering horror injuries.
Footage from the incident showed the factory engulfed in flames as fireworks exploded around the burning structure.
Two factory workers suffered third-degree burns while another is understood to have sustained burns on 85% of her body.
The blast is thought to have been the equivalent of two tonnes of TNT which triggered officials to enact a partial state of disaster.
Residents of Elin Pelin and the neighbouring town of Gara Elin Pelin were urged to evacuate.
Meanwhile, in May, a fireworks warehouse in India went up in flames after a spark from a welding unit nearby triggered a fire.
Footage showed locals rushing out to watch the incident from nearby rooftops as black smoke poured into the air.
Warehouse worker Karthik Raja, 27, died in the accident while another worker, P Sivanesan, 27, suffered severe burns.
It came just three months after another explosion at a fireworks factory in India killed at least eight people and injured 80 others.
Witnesses reported that several workers from the factory in Madhya Pradesh were trapped inside after the blast which sparked a raging inferno sending flames 50ft into the air.
“It was like a feeling of a strong quake. We ran out and witnessed a blaze,” an eyewitness said at the time.
