RUSH hour traffic was held up on several stretches of road in Suffolk and Essex this morning.

The London-bound carriageway of the A12 was blocked by a collision near junction 22 for Rivenhall.

The wreckage was moved to the hard shoulder but traffic remained congested as far back as the Marks Tey junction.

Elsewhere in Essex, a collision between three vehicles happened just after 7am on the A414 Spital Road in Maldon.

The crash happened at the roundabout and left one man trapped in his vehicle. Firefighters from Maldon used specialist cutting equipment to release him.

Meanwhile, in Suffolk, one lane of the northbound A143 was blocked in Bury St Edmunds because of an overturned vehicle.

The crash happened just off the A14, near the sugar beet factory site, at around 7.45am.

A woman was taken to hospital to be checked over.