NEWTON Abbot ground to a halt this lunchtime as traffic came to a standstill.

The culprit was a wide load under escort trying to navigate the town centre, which went well until it came to East Street.

The low loader, pulled by a long cab and carrying a new excavator found it was unable to get beyond the traffic lights pinch point near the White Hart pub.

It was then forced to reverse all the way back along East Street and find an alternate route.

Police prevented traffic entering East Street at both ends until the road was clear, after which normal traffic patterns were resumed.

Newton Abbot police later tweeted: 'Thank you to the patient members of the public this morning whilst we closed East Street.

'This heavy goods vehicle had to manoeuvre through backwards some distance.'