Snow causes road closures and long delays in the East of England

There are severe delays on the M25 after heavy snowfall and icy conditions overnight

Motorists were stranded for hours on the M25 after heavy snowfall led to treacherous driving conditions.

One motorist said during a standstill on the Essex/Hertfordshire border he witnessed a hungry driver leave and come back with takeaway food.

Delays remained during the Monday morning rush hour, with National Highways advising people to only travel if "absolutely essential".

More than 100 Essex schools have closed due to the bad weather.

Hertfordshire Police had to escort gritting lorries to sections of the London orbital motorway that had been at a standstill for several hours.

The M25 was closed in both directions between junctions 25 for the A10 and 23 for South Mimms. It had reopened but delays of 90 minutes were still expected.

'New job'

On Sunday, motorists were stranded on the M25 for hours due to the snow.

Ryan Tilcock rang BBC Essex at about 06:00 GMT on Monday and said he was stuck in the Waltham Cross/Waltham Abbey area.

He left Bedford on Sunday to drop off his children in Colchester, but then became stuck as he tried to make the return journey.

He said: "There's a lot of snow, I've seen people come off the road and a couple of shunts.

"I saw someone leave and come back with a fast food container, so maybe they've gone to get a kebab or something.

"I'm supposed to start a new job in a few hours, so this is quite the excuse."

Ipswich Town footballer Greg Leigh posted a video of motorists being helped out on the M25

After his brief appearance as substitute in Ipswich's 2-1 victory over Peterborough on Saturday, Town footballer Greg Leigh shared video on Instagram Stories from the M25 on Sunday night, captioned "1 degree celsius. 0137".

Anna Damski filmed footage of stationary traffic on the clockwise carriageway near the M11/junction 27, which she described as "snowmageddon".

In a tweet, train operator Greater Anglia said "do not travel" until after 08:00 GMT, and then to check if your train was still running.

Anna Damski was stuck in stationary traffic on the clockwise carriageway of the M25 on Sunday night, just west of the M11 junction for Loughton/Harlow

The Met Office has extended a yellow weather warning for snow and icy patches until 11:00 GMT on Tuesday.

In Essex, both the police and fire service warned against anything except essential travel and said that overnight they had had callouts to vehicles stuck in the snow which they were not able to recover.

Essex Police said they were receiving a high number of 999 calls related to crashes.

In a post on social media, the force said: "If you are able to, please avoid using the roads under the current conditions.

"Due to the number of RTCs [road traffic collisions], recovery companies are under extra pressure and obviously unable to travel at usual speed, adding to the delay.

"This then means that we have fewer resources to respond to other emergency calls."

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said there had been multiple reports of cars getting stuck on minor and major roads overnight and the force also urged people not to travel unless it was vital.

Delays remained on the M25 between junction 26 for Waltham Abbey and junction 24 for Potters Bar due to reports of a jack-knifed lorry.

There were also issues on the M11 in both directions between Loughton and Harlow in Essex - with snow, slow traffic and vehicles struggling on slip roads.

Up to 25 gritters were treating the M25 at any one time on Sunday, National Highways said, spreading 960 tonnes of salt and over 18,000 litres of anti-freeze.

Stewart Turner, network operations manager for the East of England, said: "The motorway network is now open and traffic is moving after a challenging night.

"Our crews have been working hard to return the network to normal and we would like to thank everyone for their efforts to get our roads moving again.

"However, we would still urge drivers to take extra care."

Visit the Essex County Council website for full details about school closures in the county.

In Cambridgeshire, more than two dozen schools have closed due to concerns about pupils and staff being able to travel safely. The county council's website has the latest information.