A water main burst this morning on a busy route between Canterbury and Ashford is leading to traffic tailbacks.

Emergency work is underway to repair six-inch pipe under the A28 at Thanington.

It has meant the installation of three-way traffic lights at the junction with Strangers Lane which is leading to delays for drivers.

South East Water says it is working as quickly as possible to repair the ruptured main.

Traffic controls will be in place for the rest of the day, overnight and during tomorrow morning's rush hour.

The company says no homes have so far been affected by the incident. However, if engineers do need to shut off the water for a short period later in the day, supplies will be re-routed water around the network to minimise the number of properties affected.

South East Water’s distribution manager Mark Rice said: "We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused householders and motorists on what we know is a very busy road.

"Unfortunately, burst pipes do happen on our extensive and complex underground network, which has to withstand high pressure every day.

"However, we are out and about 24 hours a day, seven days a week finding and fixing them and we try to keep disruption to a minimum."