Traffic chaos in central London as Tower Bridge stuck open for an hour

Tower Bridge became stuck open on Saturday afternoon Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Traffic in central London was left gridlocked after Tower Bridge became stuck open for more than an hour due to a "mechanical fault".

Social media users vented their frustration as the famous bridge failed to close after allowing a ship to pass through along the River Thames on Saturday afternoon.

Pictures showed queues of motorists and pedestrians waiting for at least an hour from both directions.

A witness said: "According to the security radios we overheard there are multiple failures."

Traffic and pedestrians waited for over an hour Credit: Victoria Jones/PA

City of London Police said engineers rushed to fix the bridge as motorists were urged to find other routes.

Its Twitter account said: "Tower Bridge is currently closed to pedestrians and traffic, due to a mechanical fault."

One social media user said: "I’ve been stuck here for nearly an hour now… #TowerBridge."

Another commented: "Yep, tower bridge definitely stuck! One side started to come down but the other didn’t! #towerbridge #londontraffic."

The bridge connects the Square Mile financial district to Southwark.

In 2005 police closed the bridge for 10 hours after a technical problem meant the arms could not be lowered.

A London Bridge spokesman has been approached to comment.