THERE was traffic chaos early this week after a lorry overturened in high winds on the old Severn Bridge leading to its closure for much of Monday and Tuesday.

The bridge had only been reopened for an hour following the full force of Storm Ciara on Sunday when the lorry was caught by a ‘freak gust’ just before noon on Monday.

Owing to the continued high wind, it wasn’t deemed safe to attempt to remove the lorry until conditions improved.

Highways England blamed the incident, which resulted in minor head injuries for the lorry driver, on “a sudden spike in winds” and said traffic was being diverted over the Prince of Wales Bridge.

By 7pm during the Monday night rush hour, queues on the M4 were 14 miles long with delays of around 40 minutes.

The M48 bridge was still closed in both directions on Tuesday morning, with the lorry still on its side on the eastbound carriageway.

Strong winds brought by Storm Ciara over the weekend led to the the bridge being closed in both directions on Sunday and early Monday morning before it was reopened mid-morning.

Traffic information service Inrix said the bridge may have been damaged by the crash.