Traffic was held on the M61 on Wednesday morning as police boxed-in a car on the hard shoulder.

At around 7.50am, around four police cars were seen driving southbound on the motorway, between Chorley and Rivington, before they requested a vehicle pull onto the hard shoulder.

A passenger travelling towards Bolton said: "There was about four police cars and it looks like they've sandwiched a car in on the hard shoulder.

"There was one police car in front of the vehicle and about four behind, and they were talking to someone.

"Traffic was slow and then stopped for about five or ten minutes, but once we'd driven past the incident it was flowing freely again."

It's the second incident to occur on the M61 in less than 12 hours, as just before midnight, Highways officers stopped all traffic between junctions eight for Chorley and six for Bolton North.

An ambulance was called to the scene before Highways and Road police completely closed the motorway.

A spokesperson for the police said: We were called around 10.20pm yesterday (Tuesday, August 3) to a report of a concern for safety involving a man on a bridge between junctions six and eight of the M61.

"Emergency services attended the scene with the motorway closed in both directions.

"The incident was resolved by 1am today (Wednesday, August 4) with the man taken to hospital for treatment."