Joke shop arm sparks traffic chaos

A MOTORWAY was brought to a standstill yesterday after a Halloween-style fake arm was spotted on a slip road by drivers.

Thousands of motorists were caught up in the travel chaos for several hours as officers closed the M62 in Merseyside, fearing the limb could be from a real person.

The search was sparked after several members of the public reported they had seen the severed bloody forearm.

After an extensive hunt by officers, the joke-shop limb was recovered. The drama ended shortly after 4.30pm when council workers who heard about the incident contacted police to tell them they had found a fake arm on the road earlier in the day.

Detective Inspector Tom Keatonsaid: "We don't know how this plastic arm came to be in the middle of the road, whether it was placed there deliberately or whether it had fallen out of the window of a passing vehicle."