Two collisions took place on the M11 last night leading to one casualty being airlifted to hospital.

The first incident happened around 5.30pm on Thursday, August 15 close to junction 7 on the southbound carriageway near Stansted.

Emergency services attended the scene where a blue car and a silver car had crashed resulting in a woman being trapped in her vehicle.

Firefighters from Harlow, Braintree, Stansted and Newport managed to stabilise the vehicle before releasing the woman and leaving her in the care of the Ambulance Service by 6.12pm.

The motorway remained closed in both directions from junction 8 whilst a woman in her 20s was taken to hospital by air ambulance.

Drivers were left at a completed standstill for several hours, with some people posting via Twitter they had been stuck between three to six hours.

Under the supervision by Essex Police, the queuing traffic was eventually turned around before reopening.

Officers would like to hear from anyone who has any information about the incident particularly those with dash cam footage.

The second collision on the M11 happened around 10:21pm near Chigwell, with traffic becoming gridlocked between junction 4 and 5.

One person was left trapped following the incident, which involved a total of four vehicles and occurred on the southbound carriageway.

Firefighters from Loughton and Hainault released the casualty by 11:03pm, before leaving them in the care of the Ambulance Service.

TfL Bus Alerts tweeted that the route W14 had to start and terminate journeys at Ashton Playing Fields due to the incident, missing stops between Manor Road and Cross Road.

Anyone with anyinfomation about the collision at 5.30pm, please contact the Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 101 quoting incident 895 of 15 August or by emailing collisionappeal@essex.pnn.police.uk.