The northbound carriageway of the M6 was completely blocked after two lorries collided just before 11.30am.

It was more than four hours before the road was cleared of masses of metal shavings that had spilled out of one of the lorries near junction 19.

But huge trucks were still passing through the town last night as drivers were diverted at junctions 18 and 19. As rush-hour drivers returned home, they joined traffic queuing on all roads into Knutsford.

One Knutsford businessman, stuck in jams in Holmes Chapel, took more than two hours to complete a journey that usually takes him 25 minutes.

He said the phasing of the Toft Road traffic lights should have been changed to allow more cars to pass through.

"Traffic was arriving faster than the lights could cope," he said. "It was frustrating for everyone." Police said several other towns were gridlocked after the incident.

Cars queued across the Staffordshire border and back to Lymm as officers tried to clear the scene.

"There were queues on the southbound carriageway purely because of people slowing down to look as they drove past the collision," said a police spokesman. One of the lorry drivers was taken to hospital with a head injury. The other escaped unhurt.

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