Traffic is queuing for up to an hour towards the Dartford Crossing and 45 minutes towards the bridge as the roads around Kent and Essex face gridlock.

Motorists heading to Essex are stuck in queues as far back as Junction 4 for Orpington after a broken-down vehicle forced National Highways to close the east tunnel earlier this morning.

Drivers travelling from Essex to Kent are also stuck in queues of up to 45 minutes from Junction 29 for Romford and Basildon.

The tunnel has now re-opened but there are still delays of up to an hour which is affecting roads through Dartford and Greenhithe.

One driver took over an hour to make a five-minute journey from Bean to Greenhithe.

“It’s just awful,” he said. “I couldn’t even get out of Bean village so I went the other way and drove through Betshaw to join the A2, but everyone was coming off the motorway and trying to squeeze down the country lanes to do the same.

“It was a nightmare.”

More on this as we have it.