A man in his 50s was killed in a three-car pile-up on a Kent motorway, leading to huge traffic problems.

The M2 was closed coastbound between junction 4 (Gillingham) and junction 5 (Sittingbourne) for over 10 hours after the crash, which happened shortly after 3am Friday.

Police said the collision scene stretched across 200m of the motorway.

A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. A police spokesman said: "The circumstances of the incident are still being investigated and so far no charges have been brought."

The crash - along with two others in the Medway area - caused road chaos for motorists on Friday. The carriageway reopened at around 2pm.

A motorist, who was caught up in the huge delays caused by the crash, said: "I drove past the crash site, which is about half-a-mile away from the Farthing Corner services. It looked really bad, one of the cars was completely mangled, unrecognisable."

The vehicles involved in the accident were a VW Golf, a VW Bora and a Peugeot 405.

Two other crashes added to the traffic nightmare.

Police were called to the coastbound slip road of the A249, joining the M2 at junction 5, shortly after 7am, where a heavy goods vehicle had toppled over.

A third incident at around 10.30am saw another three-car collision on the London-bound stretch of the M2 between junctions 4 and 5.