A shorted out battery brought chaos to the M4 at Slough yesterday.

The driver of a van taking batteries for recycling smelt that something was wrong and found acid spilling out of one of them.

He had to stop in the sliproad leading onto junction 5 headed towards London.

Firefighters from Slough and Langley were joined by a hazardous material teams from Maidenhead and Reading as well as and Highways Agency representatives.

The battery was removed and the overdrum secured.

The teams were there from 12.30pm until 3.15pm and the sliproad had to be closed to traffic.