It was a day of misery for people travelling in and out of Cornwall yesterday.

During rush hour in the morning, a man and a woman died after a crash involving a lorry and six cars on the M5 near Taunton.

Two women were in a critical condition in hospital on last night and two other people have been receiving treatment for non life-threatening or life-changing injuries.

The accident happened around 8.30am and the road between Junction 24 and 25 was closed for 11 hours to allow officers to investigate the incident and also to repair the road surface.

Traffic heading into Exeter and Cornwall backed for miles and by 6pm, tailbacks were over ten miles long and the southbound route was described as a "car park".

One couple travelling back from the Midlands took almost ten hours to return to their home on the Roseland peninsula, having attempted to re-route via the A38 at Bridgwater but becoming gridlocked on that road also.

After travelling around one mile in two hours, they headed back up the M5 towards Bristol before cutting across the Mendip hills and joining the A303, which was also blighted by very heavy traffic.

On the railway, Great Western Railway passengers were stranded near Tiverton Parkway just after 5pm when their Penzance to Paddington train came to abrupt halt.

It took until 10.30pm to finally take all the passengers off the train. With the help of British Transport Police, they were evacuated and walked down the track in the dark.

British Transport Police tweeted: "Due to a fault on a @GWRHelp train near #TivertonParkway this evening, we were required to ‘detrain’ passengers. To everyone who was affected by delays this evening, thank you.

"Your patience & understanding allowed for a safe evacuation to happen as quickly as possible."