AN OVERTURNED caravan that closed a Hampshire road for seven hours had “completely disintegrated”, according to officials.

Hampshire police were called to the westbound A31 at 2pm on Tuesday following reports a caravan had been involved in an incident at Stoney Cross.

Officers closed the road for several hours though no one was reported to have been injured.

Lengthy tailbacks ensued as a result as the clean-up got underway before the road reopened just before 9pm.

A Highways England spokesman confirmed the operation was led “from start to finish” by Hampshire Police, adding: “I have been informed that the recovery would have taken a while as the caravan completely disintegrated and was in thousands of pieces.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire Police said: “Due to the complex nature of the recovery operation we called in the assistance of a specialist recovery company.

“We worked alongside this company and the highways team to get the road reopened as quickly as possible, while ensuring the safety of everyone involved.

“It is never in the interests of Hampshire Constabulary to keep a road closed for any longer than it has to be.

ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads “We understand that the closure of any road can be frustrating for motorists but we would like to reassure people that our officers work hard to try and minimise disruption where possible. We would like to thank everyone for their patience while we dealt with this incident.”

A comment made on the Daily Echo website said: “Someone from the police or the Highways Agency needs to step up and take some responsibility here. It was quickly discovered there were no injuries. Yes accidents happen, but the management of the incident here is shocking.”

A second incident in as many days saw motorists delayed again on Wednesday evening.

A broken down car at Poulner Hill saw several miles of tailbacks as the vehicle was partially obstructing the road at 6.50pm.

A police spokesperson said: “It was just obstructing the carriageway and it was recovered. There were several miles of tailbacks whilst that was being done but traffic could pass.”