Drivers on the M4 were met with miles of traffic this morning after a fire ripped through a lorry near Swindon.
Emergency crews rushed to the M4 westbound route near Wiltshire where a fire broke out in the vehicle after a collision between junction 14 for Hungerford and junction 15 for Swindon East in the early hours of Friday (July 15).
Police officers closed the westbound route early this morning to allow firefighters to attend to the blaze, which was first reported by Highways England at 2.44am on Friday morning. Wiltshire Police shared an image of the blaze showing the extent of the damage to the vehicle from the fire, which had ripped through the main part of the lorry.
As it happened: M4 traffic LIVE: Long queues after fire rips through lorry
Highways England soon announced one lane - lane three out of three - was reopened to allow traffic to pass, although long delays remained in the area. The lane closures had caused seven miles of congestion by 7.30am on Friday morning.
On Twitter, Wiltshire Police said at 7.44am: ""By the time OT21 had finished reading the instructions on the fire extinguisher in the boot of the traffic car, this had got out of hand slightly. So we closed the motorway and let the fire service sort it out. Everyone safe and well and traffic is flowing."
It was later confirmed the lorry had been involved in a collision, which subsequently caused the vehicle to catch fire. Emergency crews remained at the scene to clear and remove the HGV lorry.
At 11.45am, Highwasy England confirmed the road had reopened: "Scene clear and all lanes now reopened on the #M4 westbound between J14 (#Hungerford) and J15 (#Swindon). There is still approx. 5 miles of congestion on approach, causing delays of 50 minutes above usual journey times."
Traffic reporting system Inrix was still reporting long queues of traffic stretching for five miles after midday due to the earlier incident.
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