Winchester MP Steve Brine has said Saturday's incident on the M3 motorway was a nightmare for all concerned but praised police and security services for the way they handled the situation.
UPDATE (27 September) : Steve Brine has spoken with Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, and he has agreed to an investigation of Saturday's events that will report shortly to a Minister.
On Sunday afternoon Hampshire Police revealed a bomb disposal team shut the motorway for 11 hours after flammable material was thrown from a bridge over the carriageway.
Emergency services rushed to the M3 between junction 10 and 11 at 3.49am on Saturday following the incident. An explosive ordnance disposal team was called and early tests discovered that the material, which has not been identified, was flammable rather than explosive.
Steve Brine said; "Saturday's incident on the M3 was a nightmare, obviously for those stuck but also for my constituents across Winchester who saw the city grind to a halt. I'm asking Highways England for a full explanation of how they handled the closure but there is no pain free way to close a major motorway and, of course, any diversion sends even more traffic onto small roads which were already full.
"Too much speculation about the cause of the incident and the reasons behind it are never helpful in my experience but we should thank the emergency and security services who handled an extremely difficult situation well and ensured public safety remained paramount."
Hampshire Constabulary have now revealed that a similar incident happened on the same bridge at about 4am on Saturday, September 16.
A police statement says: "Nobody was hurt, and there is no wider risk to public safety as a result. Assessments to determine exactly what the material is are still on-going at this time.
"We have been utilising a wealth of expertise, across policing and our partners, to assess the risk to public safety, and we stress that at this time this is not being treated as a terrorist incident. Officers are aware of, and are investigating, a similar incident which took place on the same bridge last week, at around 4am on Saturday 16 September.
"In this incident, an object was dropped into the carriageway and we received further reports that something was alight in the same location. Officers attended and found a quantity of broken glass but no fire. A lane 1 closure was put in place for a very short time, to allow the debris to be cleared. No-one was hurt during this incident.
"We know that a lot of people use this route at that time as part of their daily routine, and we urge anyone who witnessed either of these incidents, or who has any information, to contact police immediately on 101.
More details will be posted to this page as/when they are available.
Image courtesy of Daily Echo.
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Inspector Mark Lynch video update posted Sunday 24 September
