A huge flare from Fawley oil refinery sent black plumes of smoke into the sky this morning.

It comes as "major maintenance" on the ExxonMobil site is set to come to an end.

Stephen Lynch capture the image from the New Forest.

A statement from ExxonMobil on X last week said: "As we near the end of our planned major maintenance phase, we want to inform you of our upcoming on-site activities.

"Over the coming week, we will begin to safely bring units back online. As we prepare for this work, there may be intermittent periods of elevated noise, and during this process, we will require the use of our flares.

"We apologise in advance for any potential disturbance, and we are working hard to minimise duration where possible.

"We would like to thank our community for its patience during this major maintenance period, which will lead to significant improvements in our site’s safety, reliability and performance."