West Wing actress Mary McCormack has shared a video of her husband's Tesla which caught fire "out of the blue."

She posted a clip showing flames blasting out from underneath her husband director Michael Morris's car.

"This is what happened to my husband and his car today," she wrote.

"No accident, out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.

"Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him."

@Tesla This is what happened to my husband and his car today. No accident,out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.  Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him pic.twitter.com/O4tPs5ftVo

— Mary McCormack (@marycmccormack) June 16, 2018

The actress said the electric car "wasn’t a Tesla with auto pilot."

West Hollywood Sheriff's Lieutenant William Nash said that deputies saw smoke coming from the electric vehicle and then fire.

Firefighters were called and managed to extinguish the flames.

Tesla said the incident was "an extraordinarily unusual occurrence" and said it is investigating.

The basic model of the Tesla Model S retails from £65,000 and above in the UK.

Amazing work by Tesla team. Built entire new general assembly line in 3 weeks w minimal resources. Love u guys so much! Pic of 1st Model 3 dual motor performance coming off the line … pic.twitter.com/Xr55P3fmGd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 16, 2018

Mr Nash said the driver was out of the car and there were no injuries. He added that the fire could have been caused by a faulty battery.

Mr Morris was director of The Old Vic theatre in London from 1999 to 2002.