Drivers battled an early morning blizzard on the M20 as snow and ice caused chaos on Kent's roads.

Drivers on the coastbound carriageway faced heavy flurries and vehicles were said to be in hedges and fire crews in attendance.

The London bound carriageway was partially blocked following an accident before the junction 4 Snodland exit.

One commuter tweeted: "Queue onto M25 from the M26 is absolutely massive this morning. We aren’t far off the M20, almost the entire motorway is crawling."

The M26 westbound was also partially blocked, with reports of a three-car pile up before the M25 but has since been cleared.

It comes following yesterday's yellow weather warning for snow from the Met Office.

The warning came into effect at 2am this morning and is set to last until around 8am.

A spokesman for the authority explained: "A spell of heavy rain may affect parts of southeast England during the early hours of Monday morning, lasting into the morning travel period before clearing eastwards.

"Ten to 20mm of rain is expected in places, and there is a risk of this turning to snow before clearing.

"There is large uncertainty as to whether it will snow, but if it does, a few places may see two to five centimetres accumulating above 100m in a fairly short period.

"This may lead to difficult travel conditions and some disruption."

Kent County Council Highways said gritters would be out by 4am today treating primary routes. However, it has said snow is not a certainty and some areas of the county may see no flakes at all.

It comes as a cold weather alert is in place with a 70% probability of severe cold weather, icy conditions or snow.

The Met Office triggers a yellow cold weather alert as soon as the risk is 60% or above for any of the thresholds to be breached.