The M62 has been closed for hours after a lorry caught fire between junctions 21 and 22.

Huge clouds of black smoke have been photographed billowing over the motorway, and the incident caused queues of 5 miles. Manchester News currently has no information on the safety and wellbeing of the vehicle’s driver.

The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that the road was closed in both directions and that all travellers should avoid the area.

How has the fire affected travel?

Steph H, tweeted at 12:25 after her journey was affected by the fire. This tweet stated that she had ‘seen about 8 fire engines, 2 unmarked police, and a number of traffic police cars go past’. At that time, she claimed that there was ‘no sign of the smoke stopping yet’.

The blast also affected Jon Tait’s journey. At 13:15 he tweeted that he had been ‘stationary on the M62 for an hour and a half’.

Later, I asked him how his journey continued to be affected.

‘We were travelling down from near Darlington to Manchester and got held up there for 2 hours’, says John. ‘We then had to reverse, come off [and] go through some local towns’.

He confirmed that this journey usually takes him 2 hours in total, but that ‘today it took us 5hrs after the wait and then the re-routing’.

Key Updates

Transport for Greater Manchester, @OfficialTfGM, confirmed at 15:02 that the ‘westbound carriageway is now open’, and more recently at 17:41 that ‘one lane is now open travelling eastbound’.