A MORNING of traffic chaos took over Colchester’s city centre due to a collapsed sewer which caused issues.

Traffic built up yesterday morning following the incident in Queen Street caused chaos.

One resident who contacted the Gazette said part of the road had collapsed and the city centre was gridlocked.

One resident on Facebook said the traffic problem was heightened by a vehicle going into the back of a bus, but Essex Police said they had no record of such an incident.

Congestion around the city centre was caused not only in Queen Street itself but also down the High Street and Head Street.

Other residents reported “gridlock” up and down East Hill.

A worker who was at the scene said the street had previously been at a standstill due to the issue.

The traffic later cleared returned to normal late morning at about 11am, although work was still being done after the incident to fix the issue.

When The Gazette attended the scene at about 11.30am, traffic had cleared across the city and normal business was resumed.

However, Queen Street remained shut.

Some buses were running late due to the Queen Street sewer pipe collapse.

First Essex tweeted, saying: “Due to an unexpected closure of Queen Street, services are experiencing delays around the Colchester city area.”

Their services which use Colchester High Street and East Hill were diverted via Southway and Balkerne Hill.

The Gazette contacted Anglian Water for a comment regarding the issue but did not receive a response before going to press.