RUSH hour traffic on the M6 was brought to a standstill as emergency services crews battled to free a woman passenger from the wreckage of a car involved in a four-vehicle smash yesterday evening.

The 28-year-old woman received serious but non-life threatening injuries after the Rover saloon she was a passenger in collided with two other saloons and a HGV on the northbound section of motorway near Carnforth at junction 35, said a Lancashire Police spokesman.

He said the woman from Brampton, North Cumbria, was rushed to Lancaster Royal Infirmary with broken bones after emergency services crews took one-and-a-half hours to free her from the wreckage.

Only the driver and a second passenger in the Rover received slight injuries during the accident, which happened at around 4.30pm.

Police, fire and ambulance crews cleared the motorway after almost two hours, during which time they opened a single carriageway allowing traffic to pass through.

Motorists faced delays of over an hour with traffic tailing back as far as junction 34 at Lancaster.