South Lanarkshire is facing significant petrol shortages due to a spike in demand that has seen fuel on the forecourts running out across the country.
Multiple petrol stations have been forced to shut completely due shortages caused by so-called 'panic buying,' while others have multiple pumps unavailable.
Shortages have been confirmed at various stations, including forecourts run by BP, Shell, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco.
‘Panic buying’ from consumers has been blamed for the shortages, as well as widespread shortages in HGV drivers.
A BP spokesman said: “We are experiencing fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites.
"This is being caused by a shortage of qualified drivers. The majority of the 1200 sites we supply remain supplied and open.
“We are working to resupply as rapidly as possible.”
A filling station run by Sainsbury’s in East Kilbride closed after a rush from hundreds of motorists.
And the Esso garage in Buchandyke, Calderwood also closed over the weekend after the pumps were left dry.
On Friday, queues started at the Tesco in Wishaw around 6am according to staff, with queues at the town's Morrisons starting on the Thursday and continuing over the weekend.
A Tesco spokesman added: "We have experienced some temporary outages in a small number of areas.
“We have good availability of fuel, with deliveries arriving at our petrol filling stations across the UK every day.”
Lengthy queues formed all weekend at the Lindsayfield Morrisons store in EK, with a spokesman calling it "a rapidly moving situation".
The spokesman told Lanarkshire Live: "We are working hard with our suppliers to ensure we can continue to keep our pumps open and serve our customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused during this time.”
Suppliers Shell said they were "working hard" to ensure supplies for customers, adding that they had been seeing a "higher-than-normal" demand since Friday.
Now transport bosses have warned that panic buying of fuel at filling stations could be putting lives at risk.
The Road Haulage Association in Scotland and Northern Ireland said that the current level of demand would end up restricting vital supplies to emergency services.
Operations manager Louise Moules spoke out as petrol stations were forced to close at the weekend after running out of fuel.
Others saw long waits on forecourts, while some garages in Lanarkshire and the surrounding area started imposing £30 restrictions on petrol and diesel.
Ms Moules said: “That is a worry for the police, fire and ambulance if we continue to purchase fuel at the current levels.
“The concern is when you have an emergency vehicle out on the road and it is running low on petrol or diesel. What happens if they can’t get fuel at one stop and then have to go six miles down the road to the next stop and they can’t get it there?
“Meanwhile, you have people phoning the police or ambulance looking for help.
"You don’t want emergency vehicles moving between filling stations looking for fuel but can’t get it because motorists are filling their tanks.”
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