MOTORISTS inundated police with reports that ‘a body’ was hanging from a footbridge over a Hampshire motorway.

Police received a number of calls from concerned drivers who saw the figure hanging from the bridge at Copythorne.

However, when police arrived just before 6am today they discovered it was a dummy that had been covered with a sheet in a suspected prank.

Inspector Bernadette Smith of Hampshire police described the prank as “thoughtless and irresponsible”

She said: “It was very distracting and distressing for the motorists on the M27 this morning and both thoughtless and irresponsible of the people who decided to place it there.”

No delays or accidents were reported as a result of the incident.