Traffic chaos as the M62 closes in both directions

Motorists have been warned of major disruption after a motorway near Leeds was closed due to an incident with police.

The M62 closed to traffic at around 10am on the day of the general election poll in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

National Highways has warned drivers about the incident which has closed all four lanes in both directions between junctions 29 and 30.

The incident closed the stretch of road between J29 (Lofthouse Interchange/M1) and J30 (Rothwell).

Motorists were told to use diversion routes and expect delays of up to 30 minutes in the area until midday, the National Highways said.

Footage shows a police car stopped in front of a massive queue of stopped traffic on the main highway, while the other lane was eerily empty.

The eastbound carriageway remains closed as of 11am, while the westbound carriageway has “fully reopened”, the highways authority said on social media.

“Traffic caught in the eastbound closure is being diverted from the back of the queue,” it said.

West Yorkshire Police have been contacted for comment.

Were you affected by the outage? Please email [email protected].

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