A 20-YEAR-OLD man was arrested on suspicion of drug-driving following an incident which saw an articulated lorry driven the wrong way up the M65.

Lanes on the motorway were closed for 20 hours following the incident which saw a red Hayton Coulthard articulated lorry smash through a central barrier and crash into a field.

The incident happened between junction five and junction six at Blackburn at 9.30am on Saturday. The motorway only fully re-opened at 6am on Sunday after Highways Agency engineers carried out repair work on the central barrier.

Police arrested the driver of the lorry at the scene. He was later taken to hospital with what police described as a minor head injury.

Nobody else was injured.

Highways England said around 100 metres of central reservation barrier was damaged.

A crane was used to pull the red lorry from the bushes next to the hard shoulder.

A Blackburn with Darwen Council Facebook page said: “Information we have is that a lorry has travelled the wrong way on the eastbound side of motorway and has crashed through the central reservation and ended up in a field.”

Marc Fretwell, from Burnley, said: “We didn’t see it come through the barrier but saw it hurtling towards oncoming traffic, including us.

“It was clearly out of control. We’re OK, and thankfully it didn’t hit anybody.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.