Watermelon spillage causes chaos on busy motorway

All three lanes of the M25 have since reopened

(National Highways)

A “spillage of watermelons” disrupted traffic on the M25 for nearly two hours, causing miles of traffic on the busy motorway on Tuesday morning.

At 9:38am this morning, the National Highways reported that traffic was held clockwise within Junction 31, sharing images of the road strewn with fruit on X (formerly Twitter).

“A road sweeper has been requested to clear the spillage. Traffic is building on approach, currently adding 20 minutes to journey times,” their original statement read.

In a subsequent message, National Highways added 30 minutes to travel times, as images posted online showed road workers clearing the spilled watermelons.

Traffic was restricted to lane three after it was reopened past the scene.

The AA issued a statement, that read: “Severe delays, queueing traffic for four miles and one lane closed due to spillage of watermelons on M25 clockwise at J31 A1306 (Lakeside / Purfleet).

The National Highways posted a new update at around 11:20am, which read: “All lanes have reopened past the scene on the #M25 clockwise within J31 following the earlier spillage of watermelons.

“Lane one (of two) currently remains closed on the entry slip road. Residual delays are clearing quickly,” the National Highways added.

According to news reports, the incident resulted in traffic building up over four miles on the M25, one of the busiest roads in the UK, on Tuesday.

Finally, at around 12:10pm, the highways company confirmed both lanes on the entry slip road had also reopened, as traffic monitoring site INRIX confirmed the M25 clockwise at J31 had “returned to normal” near Lakeside Shopping Centre.