A BUSY junction was shut for two-and-a-half hours after 48 hay bales flew off an overturned tractor.

Witnesses told how they heard a loud bang as the yellow trailer smashed onto the road at the Five Bells Interchange, in Vange, yesterday afternoon.

Queues built up in both directions.

Police rushed to the scene at about 1.30pm and closed the junction while the hay was cleared from the roundabout.

Traffic was diverted along Southend Road, Vange, towards Stanford-le-Hope.

A salesman working nearby the scene, who did not want to be named, said: “I have no idea what happened at all.

“I was just sitting on the office and I quickly rushed outside when I heard the noise.

“I must admit it’s not something that you see outside your place of work every day.

“I was quite surprised really.”

The 42-year-old added: “I think that having the road closed for such a long time must have caused major problems.”

Another eyewitnesses, aged 36, said: “I saw the traffic building up in the road.

“People began to look quite angry as they were being forced to turn around and go back the way they came.

“I can image that it would have added a lot of time to people’s journeys.”

The road reopened at about 4pm after as police and the tractor driver had cleared up all of the hay.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Police were called at 1.30pm on Tuesday, August 31.

“The incident was cleared just before 4pm and the incident was left in the care on the highways department at Essex County Council.