DRIVERS are being warned to take "extreme care" as they travel home from work tonight.

With snowfall expected to continue late into the night, police are warning that the county's roads will become treacherous as darkness falls and roads freeze.

Throughout today Hampshire County Council's highways department and the Highways Agency have cleared all major roads including motorways, trunk roads, and A and B roads, and will continue to do so during the main rush hour.

Since midnight and 3pm today police received 4365 calls, including 756 '999' calls. A total of 196 of those calls were reporting road crashes, most of which happened this morning and did not result in serious injury.

Two of the worst regions in the county were Southampton where 44 collisions took place and also across the Winchester and Fareham districts were 40 incidents were reported on the roads.

There were 31 road crashes reported on the county's major route including all motorways and main A roads.

Police chiefs are also asking members of the public not to swamp telephone lines into the control room with unnecessary calls.

Icy and treacherous roads and related issues can be reported to the Hants Direct hotline on 0845 603 5638.