Updates
12.30pm: The Highway remains closed heading out of town between Wapping and the Limehouse Link Tunnel while accident investigation work continues at the scene. Drivers are still being urged to avoid the area and allow extra time.
11.38am: Severe delays are still being reported around the closure as investigators continue their work at the scene. A reporter at the scene understands two women were involved in the crash, which is said to have involved a black luxury vehicle — though this has not been confirmed and we are still working to verify the information.
11.20am: Severe delays are continuing on the A1203 around the closure, with no sign yet of when the road might reopen. Drivers are still being urged to avoid the area and allow extra time while the investigation continues.
10.35am: The closure appears to have moved into a crash-investigation phase, with the A1203 still shut both ways between Butcher Row and Brodlove Lane. Traffic is reported to be stationary through Poplar and the Limehouse Link, queues are stretching from the A12 through to Bow and Mile End, and the picture is being monitored from the A13 at Beckton through Limehouse and from Whitechapel.
Two people have been taken to hospital after a serious collision in the early hours of this morning brought The Highway to a standstill near the Limehouse tunnel.
Emergency services were called to The Highway in E1W at 3.28am after reports of a crash. Two ambulance crews raced to the scene alongside paramedics in fast-response cars and an incident response officer.
A trauma team from London’s Air Ambulance, travelling by car, was also dispatched to support the crews on the ground.
Medics treated two patients at the roadside before conveying them both to a major trauma centre, with one taken as a priority.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We treated two patients at the scene and took them both to a major trauma centre – one as a priority.”
The A1203 remains closed in both directions this morning while collision investigators examine the scene, and the road is expected to stay shut until their work is complete.
The closure is causing major disruption across east London. Long delays and heavy congestion have been reported through Docklands and past Canary Wharf, while traffic is queuing on West India Dock Road towards the A13. Diversions are in place around the scene.
Bus passengers are also affected. Route D3 is diverted in both directions, with stops between the Royal London Hospital and Tobacco Dock not being served while the closure remains in force.
Drivers are being urged to avoid the area, allow extra time for their journeys, check live travel updates before setting off and consider public transport where possible.
The hospitalisations mark a serious development in our earlier report on the overnight collision that first shut the A1203 in the small hours, bringing gridlock to the roads around the Limehouse Link.
The Highway, which forms part of the A1203, is one of the main routes linking the City fringe with Docklands via Wapping and Limehouse, and carries thousands of vehicles into east London every morning. Its closure has left surrounding roads struggling to cope with diverted traffic.
The Limehouse Link itself is one of the busiest road tunnels in the capital, carrying the A1203 beneath Limehouse Basin between the Highway and the Isle of Dogs.
It is the second major road closure to hit London this morning, after a crash shut Fulham Palace Road in both directions as rush-hour gridlock gripped Hammersmith.
The capital has seen a spate of serious incidents on the roads in recent days, including a four-vehicle crash that brought chaos to the North Circular and a police incident that closed a bus lane on High Street North in East Ham during the morning commute.
The scale of the response in the early hours underlined the seriousness of the incident, with two ambulance crews, rapid-response paramedics, an incident response officer and the air ambulance trauma team all sent to the scene.
No details have yet been released about how the crash happened, and the conditions of the two people taken to hospital have not been disclosed. Police have not said when the road is expected to reopen.
With the closure coinciding with the morning rush hour, commuters heading for Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs are among the worst affected, and surrounding roads are expected to remain congested well into the afternoon.
Anyone caught up in the disruption is advised to plan an alternative route and allow plenty of extra time, with delays expected to continue until the A1203 fully reopens.
Collision investigators remain at the scene, and the road will reopen once their examination is complete.
London Streets will continue to update this story as more details emerge from the emergency services.
