Work to clear up a flooded road which has been closed for 18 days has been hampered after a key bit of equipment was vandalised.

The A143 Compiegne Way in Bury St Edmunds has been shut since Sunday, December 31 after it was left submerged underwater during extreme rainfall

Suffolk Highways has been working to clear the road for a number of days but investigations have found that ground water is continuing to flood the road in significant volumes. 

East Anglian Daily Times: The A143 in Bury St Edmunds remains floodedThe A143 in Bury St Edmunds remains flooded (Image: Contributed)

The authority has also said that vandalism to a control gear has delayed clear up works in the west Suffolk town. 

The closure has caused many people to find alternative routes, which has meant heavy congestion in and around the town centre

More than 300,000 litres of water has been removed from the major route since Thursday after becoming flooded during Storm Henk. 

A spokesman for Suffolk Highways said: "We’ve investigated other options to remove the water more quickly but the most helpful potential option is hampered by a vandalised control gear that is needed to remove water from a storage lagoon nearby.

"We are exploring options to repair or replace this as soon as possible but in the meantime we will be doubling our tankers on site tomorrow, which means four tankers pumping over 60,000 litres of water away, which we hope will then allow us to commence the clearing of debris from the road and remove silt from the pump system so we can repair it.

"We will continue to provide updates on the works we’re completing each day.

"We're sorry for the ongoing inconvenience, we are working to get the road reopened as soon as we can."