Traffic in Lancaster city centre ground to a virtual halt for three hours on Tuesday - after a bus collided with scaffolding in North Road.

The Stagecoach double decker was not in service and had no passengers when it became entangled in the ironwork at 3.15pm.

The driver, who escaped injury, was given a routine breath test by police at the scene - it proved negative.

Police had to close the a section of the city centre's one-way system while engineers were called to check that t no structural damage had been caused. The scaffolding was then dismantled and the crumpled bus removed.

Traffic was diverted via Bulk Road until after 6pm.

No-one at Stagecoach was available to talk about the incident at the time the Citizen went to press on Wednesday.