Escaped cows: Traffic held up on M62 in West Yorkshire

The animals had to be herded back into their field

A group of cows escaped from their field and wandered on to a motorway holding up traffic earlier.

National Highways said the six animals had kicked through a boundary fences at about 11:00 GMT and ended up on the hard shoulder between junctions 24 and 25 of the the M62 in West Yorkshire .

The beasts were spotted by a gritter driver who informed the emergency services.

A team then herded the cows back into their field within 15 minutes.

"We're not sure why they were so intent on getting through the fence but they were obviously very keen to be hoofing it along the motorway," the agency said.

"They were returned to their field thanks to a great multi-agency response from National Highways traffic officers, the farmer, West Yorkshire Police, and a passing ambulance crew who stopped to assist with the herding.

"Traffic was held up for a short time for the safety of road users but was soon back on the move," it added.

The incident prompted a number of cow-related puns on social media, including this tweet from the National Highways Yorkshire team: "We don't have any udder puns & we won't try milking it with the ones we can think of."