AN ACCIDENT shut the M20 in both directions on Thursday afternoon - just nine days after an overturned lorry caused traffic chaos on the same stretch of road.

The motorway was closed in both directions shortly after 3pm to allow the Kent Air Ambulance to lift an injured driver to hospital, after which the London-bound carriageway and lanes two and three of the coastbound carriageway reopened.

The male driver was thought to have suffered leg injuries in a three-vehicle smash involving two cars and a lorry between junction three at Wrotham and junction four at Leybourne.

Fire crews from Larkfield, Swanley and Thameside, near Gravesend, attended the accident and cut the driver free from a blue Fiat. He was taken to Maidstone Hospital.

Traffic queues formed in both directions during the emergency.