ONE person died and another was seriously injured when the lorries they were driving veered across four lanes of the M5 in Worcester before crashing into an embankment.

The accident, which took place at about 2.30pm yesterday afternoon, closed the road in both directions, causing tailbacks for miles, hours afterwards.

The two lorries were travelling northbound between junctions six (Warndon) and five (Wychbold) when the accident happened.

Both ended up going across the outside lane, crashing through the central reservation and over the southbound lanes before careering off the motorway.

One driver was pronounced dead at the scene and the other airlifted to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, with stomach injuries.

The traffic situation was made even worse after another accident on the M42 at 4.45pm closed the road between junctions one and two - meaning that traffic travelling south on the M5 could not get on to the M42.

A spokeswoman for Hereford and Worcester Fire and Recue Service said it was fortunate more people had not been injured.

"The two HGVs crossed four lanes of the motorway in total. It was lucky that more vehicles were not caught up in the collision," she said.

A spokeswoman for the police would only say: "There has been an incident and we are investigating what happened.

"We cannot say more than that at the moment.