Disco 1 300tdi smoke from dash

ok folks, after some help if possible,
1996 300tdi starts smoking from around the steering whee area of the dash all electrics fail but engine still running, obviously stopped the car, turn ignition back on and the electrics all start working again with no smoking but car won’t start.
Any thoughts what might cause this??
Thanks in advance

you should probably open up the ignition area of the steering column and have a little gander

Sounds like melted ign switch or multiplug, you should be able to see the offending bit if there was smoke

As they said ^^^^^

Don't be tempted to keep trying it, or to start it until you've seen what a mess it's in, you will definitely only make it worse, it won't fix it itself. BTDTHTTS.

Please start by disconnecting the battery!!!!

Yes it may seem counter productive to fault finding initially but the smoke indicates burning and the burning will make itself visibly evident while you are rummaging around, the rummaging around however will most certainly recreate the conditions that lead to your initial burning and it can get out of hand really fast!!!