THREE men were killed on the M26 near Otford when the van they were travelling in collided with a lorry parked on the hard shoulder.

The accident happened just before 3pm yesterday on the motorway's eastbound carriageway, near the junction with the M25.

The lorry, which is registered in Austria, had been parked on the hard shoulder after breaking down when it was hit by the Ford Transit van carrying the three men, whose names have not yet been released.

All three of the men were declared dead at the scene of the accident but neither the lorry driver nor his passenger was seriously hurt.

The motorway was closed for more than four and a half hours. Long tailbacks, compounded by the number of commuters who had driven into work in London to avoid the tube strike, stretched back from the M26 onto the M25.