A pair of swans forced part of the M25 to be blocked off on Thursday, creating over six miles of tailbacks during rush hour.
Two lanes of the busy motorway had to be closed off between Leatherhead and Wisley were shut for around an hour after the birds were seen swanning around in the road at roughly 9.20am on Thursday morning.
The disruption created 6.5 miles of congestion on the clockwise side of the motorway and added 45 minutes to journey times, National Highways reported.
National Highways told the Standard that there were only a couple of swans in the road “rather than a huge bevy” and that the incident lasted for just over an hour.
There was further trouble on the M25 on Thursday morning following a collision on the other side of the road.
Two lanes were forced to close on an anticlockwise section of the road between Wisley and Leatherhead, leading to 90-minute queues.
National Highways added that there was around 8.5 miles of traffic and that it was working to clear up a diesel spillage caused by the collision.
The incident is understood to be unrelated to the swan incident.
Thursday was not the first time swans have caused major disruption in the capital.
Train passengers faced two days of delays in September 2023 due to a swan stuck on the line.
At the time, South Western Railway was forced to tell customers “a swan on the line” was affecting services in south-west London between Clapham Junction and Wimbledon.
It came a day after South Western Railway was disrupted by a swan on the line between Kingston and Hampton Wick, also in south-west London.
In June the same year, a major section of the £19 billion Elizabeth line between Heathrow Airport in west London and Abbey Wood in south-east London was blocked because of a swan.
