Emergency services – including the air ambulance – were called to the scene of a serious collision on the A12 in Essex this evening.

The collision happened around 6.30pm on the exit slip of the London-bound carriageway at Boreham.

Both sides of the road were closed to traffic and Essex Police said the Junction 19 southbound exit slip remains fully closed for police investigation.

The northbound carriageway reopened around 8.20pm and the southbound carriageway reopened just after 9.30pm.

Highways England tweeted at 9.38pm: “The A12 southbound between J20B (HatfieldPeverel) and J19 (Boreham) has now reopened.

“Lane one remains closed on the main carriageway and the J19 southbound exit slip is fully closed to facilitate police investigations”.

Essex Police’s force control room took to social media to remind motorists not to call 999 to moan about the traffic.

The force tweeted: “Phoning up on 999 to moan about the traffic is not appropriate use of the number and takes up time for real 999 calls and our communications officers’ time.

“Please stop doing this, you will get updated as soon as possible.”

Anyone with information or dash cam footage is asked to call the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at Essex Police on 101, quoting incident 0982 of 27/08 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.