RUMOURS about another fuel crisis escalated out of all proportion on Tuesday as Malvern garages witnessed a repeat of last week's chaos.

Just as garage owners were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief and predict a return to normality, motorists suddenly started to panic buy petrol again, spurred on by a rumour that the fuel tax blockades were being resumed.

Desperate not to be caught out, motorists rushed out to fill up their tanks, causing garages, only recently replenished with petrol, to attach those familiar signs to the pumps: "Sorry, this pump is not in use".

Edric Vorstermon, manager of the BP Sunny Lodge filling station in Malvern Link said the afternoon was "pure panic".

"It started at about 12.30pm and it was as if a light switch had been turned on," he said.

"We only had diesel at the time but it was still absolutely blocked up. I can understand why people panicked but if people stopped panic buying there'd be plenty for everyone," said Mr Vorstermon.

At Malvern Springs in Malvern Link cars were queuing three quarters of the way up Spring Lane as a result of the rumours.

And at A D Daniels in Wells Road, the situation was very similar.

Last week the garage had to close to the public for a couple of days because the queues along Wells Road were causing havoc and on Tuesday, the garage closed early for the same reasons.

"It suddenly went mad again and we didn't know what was going on at first," said Becky Hamilton, garage spokesman.

"Obviously it was really, really busy but people were very good about it," she said.

Ron Hatton, owner of the Homend Garage in Ledbury said the panic brought Ledbury to a standstill.

"I was trying to reach the garage from the town end but the traffic was queuing back from the Tesco's traffic lights and nothing was moving," he said.

"It remained chaotic till about 3.30pm and then it eased off. The police were there and they were trying to tell people there was no problem but it made no difference. Once they saw the queue of 30 cars they decided to join it.

"At the moment there's no problem with fuel deliveries and as far as we can see it should stay that way," said Mr Hatton.

But at Parkway Garage, sales assistant John Cook, said they were still restricting people to £10 worth of fuel until their delivery arrived.

"We're expecting it tomorrow (Wednesday) but it might not come till Friday," he said.