Tailback safety warning after M6 Frisbee game

Police said people abandoned their cars to go into service stations

Drivers who left their cars and allowed children to play Frisbee and football while a motorway was temporarily closed have been criticised by police for creating a "very dangerous" situation.

Lancashire Police temporarily stopped traffic on the M6 at a junction in Lancaster on Saturday as they attended an incident near a bridge.

The force said many people "unbelievably" abandoned their cars to head to service stations and allowed children to "run freely on the carriageway".

As the motorway was ready to reopen it meant there were further delays caused by the abandoned vehicles.

The force released images after the incident to highlight the issue

Drivers are urged to stay in their vehicles and wait for instructions from police or National Highways if they find themselves in a tailback.

"Let us be able to concentrate on dealing with the initial emergency to get you moving as soon as possible," a police spokesman said.

The force have released images of the vehicles near junction 33 of the motorway to highlight the problem.

Officers had been called out due to welfare concerns for a man who was arrested for aggravated vehicle taking, driving while unfit through drink or drugs and disqualified driving.

People were seen in the road playing games

Those who left their vehicles "impeded officers getting to the scene of the emergency" and "significantly delayed motorway traffic", the spokesman said.

He said officers had been "seeing this happening more and more, with people thinking this behaviour is acceptable when it is clearly not".

"It is creating a dangerous situation and causing officers to detract from dealing with the initial cause of the delay," he said.

"Our officers will always work to get traffic moving as quickly as possible, but this will not be at the expense of safety."