Lancashire traffic: rush hour chaos as M61 was closed between junctions six and eight for three hours due to a police incident

The M61 near Bolton has fully reopened between Junction 6, the Horwich Interchange and Junction 8, the Chorley North Link Interchange, following an ongoing Lancashire Police led incident.

National Highways North West announced that both directions were closed at 4.17pm, and added that it was unclear how long the road will be closed for at this stage, although it would likely be for “a number of hours”.

At 5:07pm, National Highways said that the southbound carriageway had reopened, whilst there were 45 minute delays on the northbound approach.

Then at 7:19pm, they announced that the northbound carriageway had also reopened, with residual delays of 25 mins on the approach and four miles of congestion.

Lancashire Police thanked motorists for their patience.