A TEN car motorway crash which caused nine miles of traffic and 60 minute delays at its height has been cleared.

The collision happened on the M62 westbound carriageway, at junction 26 (Chain Bar, M606), at around 8:17am.

A spokesperson for Cleckheaton Fire Station said a crew had rushed to the scene of what they thought was a "nine car pile-up on the M62".

But it is believed 10 cars were involved.

Police and traffic officers were also at the scene.

Traffic was held for half-an-hour initially.

Lanes one and two reopened, but lane three remained closed for clean-up until around 10:38am.

Traffic is now easing.

Average speeds on approach to junction 26 were down to 4mph at one point.

Congestion stretched back as far as junction 29 (Lofthouse Interchange) heading westbound too.

Queues also built back to junction 24 (Ainley Top) on the eastbound carriageway.

This was due to drivers looking on at the scene as they passed. 

At one point delays hit up to 60 minutes.

There were two other major collisions within the vicinity, which exacerbated the rush-hour traffic issues.

One was on the M606 at a similar time and involved five vehicles.

The other happened on the M62 again, just over an hour after the first crash.