Thamesdown Drive briefly became a river on Thursday afternoon after a burst main ruptured the road.

Gallons of murky brown water flowed from the Elstree Way junction towards the turn-offs for the Toby Carvery and Blunsdon Arms at around 3.30pm.

Police closed this section of the busy dual carriageway and redirected traffic that was heading to and from the A419.

Smaller leaks near the pub and carvery themselves caused difficulties for drivers heading out of Haydon Wick and caused long queues of congestion that tailed back past the Orbital Shopping Park to Eastbury Way.

Pupils leaving school stopped in their tracks to stare at the fast-flowing currents.

Closer to the source of the problem, several Thames Water vans and three more police cars parked near Elstree Way and cordoned off a large hole in the middle of Thamesdown Drive as the power of the burst water main had pushed that section of asphalt higher than the rest of the road surface.

By 4pm, no water was flowing out of that gap in the road, though a pile of rocks appeared to block another fissure further along the A4198.

By 5pm, the leak near the Toby Carvey had been stopped and the amount of congestion had lessened, but this part of Thamesdown Drive remained closed.