THE skies surrounding Southampton have been lit up by an orange glare.

Emergency services have received reports of an orange glow in the sky last night and this morning.

The bursts of fire and colour are in fact due to 'flaring' from Fawley Refinery which is a way to safely burn off excess gas.

The flare acts as a safety valve for the plant. During normal operations, crude oil is refined to produce a variety of products.

Based on information published on the ExxonMobil Fawley website, the site has four flare stacks.

And when used on cloudy nights, light from the can reflect off the clouds causing an orange glow which can then be seen by local communities.

At times, flaring can lead to a rumbling sound, similar to thunder which is caused by vapours mixing.

A post on the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Control Twitter page said: "We are receiving quite a few calls from people in Weston, Woolston & Sholing areas of #Southampton reporting an orange glow in the sky. We have confirmed with #EssoFawley that this is them flaring off."