London - Drivers were trapped in traffic jams up to 25 miles long yesterday as an operation began to clean up a motorway spillage of thousands of gallons of cows' blood from a herd destroyed under the anti-BSE regulations.
Gridlocked traffic stretched from junction 10 to junction four of the M6 in the West Midlands after the blood spilled from a tanker during the morning rush-hour.
The 22-tonne tanker was travelling from a slaughterhouse in south-west England when a seal failed, pumping out blood across the northbound carriageway between Wednesbury and Walsall.