Traffic is backed up on the A1M in both directions after an accident shut the motorway northbound.

Rush hour traffic is stacking up as far back as junction 4 following a pile up at around 3.30pm around a mile from junction 7 at Stevenage.

Police closed the northbound carriageway for an hour from 3.50pm and one lane southbound so the emergency services could deal with the crash between five vehicles. Fire crews cut free one man in his 20s from a white Ford Fiesta crashed into the central reservation.

He was taken to Lister Hospital with slight injuries, the East of England Ambulance Service said.

Service spokesman Gary Sanderson said: “The ambulance crews worked extremely well with the police and fire service to treat, stabilise and immobilise him before he was removed from the car on a spinal board as a precautionary measure.”