Dick Van Dyke 'yanked from his car' moments before it burst into flames

Veteran actor Dick Van Dyke joked he had a “nice used car for sale” after he was pulled from his Jaguar seconds before it burst into flames.

The 87-year-old Mary Poppins star escaped without injury when his car “burned to a crisp” on a freeway in the Los Angeles area.

He was hauled out by another driver, Jason Pennington, who pulled over when he saw the car engulfed in smoke. He was surprised to discover the person trapped inside was Van Dyke.

He had not realised the car was on fire.

“It just started making a noise, and I thought I had a flat at first, then it started to smoke, then it burned to a crisp,” Van Dyke said.

He told TMZ that a “fireman, a nurse and a cop just happened to be passing by” and “yanked me out of the car.”

He added: “Somebody’s looking after me.”

Van Dyke, best known for 1960s children’s films Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as The Dick Van Dyke Show and more recently, Diagnosis Murder, said of the wreckage, footage of which was posted online by his wife Arlene: “Tell ‘em I have a nice used car for sale.”