UK: Fury as ‘travellers’ block busy road and leave motorists in freezing cold for FIVE hours

PROTESTERS demonstrating against the road death of a 13-year-old boy have left motorists stranded in near-freezing conditions for almost five hours after blocking a main road.

Demonstrators blocked the A127 near Basildon, Essex, by parking cars across two lanes of the busy major route into London.

The group staged the protest close to where a teenage boy was knocked down and killed on Monday.

Several group members were pictured standing on top of a 4×4 daubed with slogans in white paint.

In photos posted online one of the cars had the message "We want a footbridge — How may more?" scrawled across its side.

A tweet from the Essex Police account read: We’re currently dealing with a large protest on the A127 in #Basildon. Road closed whilst we deal. Working hard to resolve as quickly as possible.”

But police handling of the protest sparked anger among some of the motorists caught in the tailbacks.

Sarah_T_182 wrote on Twitter: "a127 still not moving! Been here since 10pm, it's freezing and no one is getting anywhere!"

Meanwhile obi_ben_n tweeted: "An hour and a half stuck still on the A127 whilst protesters wander up and down drinking beer. @EssexPoliceUK pull your finger out."

Another user Matt Stubbings wrote: “@EssexPoliceUK this is what is left of the #a127 protest — please move these people along so we can get home.”

Frustrated commuters stuck in the jam said they were only permitted to U-turn after around four hours of being at a standstill.

An Essex Police spokeswoman said the force worked hard to "achieve a resolution as quickly and safely as possible" and several diversions were put in place.

Officers were called to the scene at around 9.45pm on Tuesday where they found a "large number of people and vehicles" had blocked the highway.

A helicopter was eventually scrambled to monitor the crowd and both carriageways on the London to Southend arterial road were closed until around 2.45am on Wednesday.

The force had previously said a 31-year-old driver of a BMW car involved in the incident, which happened on Monday, was arrested and bailed pending further inquiries.