One person has been killed after the small plane they were piloting plunged onto the A58 highway near Rucphen in Brabant and burst into flames.

A German lorry driver who saw the accident said the plane made a turn and then fell to the tarmac. Others report seeing an “enormous fireball” and eyewitness photos show burning wreckage and the plume of smoke rising above the road after the accident.

The plane, thought to be a single-engine aircraft, hit the motorway heading towards Roosendaal. A car was also involved in the crash, but the driver was unhurt, the AD reported.

“I was on my way home from Breda when I felt an enormous bang,” the female driver told the AD. “I was able to stop the car on the emergency lane and it was only after I got out that I saw the plane. I was incredibly lucky.”

The motorway has been closed in the direction of Roosendaal and is likely to remain so overnight while investigators try to work out what happened.

The aircraft is thought to have taken off from Breda airport and may have belonged to flying school Breda Aviation.