'Horrendous' gridlocked traffic across Trafford with Christmas shoppers left trapped in car parks for hours after M60 is closed

There was 'horrendous' gridlocked traffic across Trafford on Thursday (December 21) with furious Christmas shoppers left trapped in car parks for hours on end or stuck in queues after the M60 was closed for more than 12 hours.

The motorway was shut over Barton Bridge, near to the Trafford Centre and Trafford Retail Park on Thursday morning after a lorry overturned in Storm Pia winds. The clockwise carriageway remained shut after the recovery and late into the night as repairs were carried out to damaged overhead signs.

With diversions put in place, traffic spilled out onto neighbouring Barton Road and Trafford Boulevard, causing Christmas shoppers to become stuck trying to get out of car parks, reportedly for three or more hours in some cases.

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There were chaotic scenes at the Trafford Retail Park, with furious shoppers claiming to have been trapped for almost four hours attempting to get off the busy car park.

Congestion on adjoining Barton Road and at the roundabout, along with the closure on the M60 slip road appeared to have caused long delays, with drivers describing it as 'horrendous' and 'manic'.

One woman, who spent almost four hours trying to escape the car park, said: "People have been getting out of their cars, the horns are going. It’s a nightmare.

"We have been sat here trying to leave; people are driving on the wrong side of the road to try and cut in nearer to front, it’s getting manic. We live two minutes away from the retail park and it’s taken us nearly four hours to get home."

Another woman, who