Police incident shuts northbound motorway

In a statement, at just after 6.30pm, Highways England said: "There is an North West Motorway Police incident on the M61 northbound within J8 Chorley.

"Traffic is being held on the main carriageway.

The police tweeted: "Blocks will be released shortly. we are just making the hard shoulder safe for emergency service workers and other vehicles that are currently on there."

The M62 is also busy heading out of Manchester this evening.

By 7.15pm the agency said it had started to release trapped traffic, but there were unconfirmed reports of a breakdown in the stationary traffic.