Traffic snarls up in west ‘Belfast during security alert at Broadway which has now ended

POLICE say the security alert which caused traffic mayhem on the M1 motorway on Monday morning has ended.

Following a sweep of the area by Army technical officers, nothing suspicious was found, say the PSNI.

The motorway had been closed in both directions between the Lisburn/Saintfield turn-off and at Stockman’s Lane.

A diversion was in place via Stockman’s Lane and the Saintfield Road junction at Lisburn.

The M1 was closed following the alert on the Black’s Road off-slip in west Belfast.

The alert causedsevere tailbacks leaving the M1 at Moira as drivers try to take an alternative route via the A26 through Nutts Corner.

There was a tailback of city-bound traffic back to Lurgan and country-bound to the Broadway roundabout.

There were also delays for traffic coming into Belfast on the Lisburn road, Andersonstown Road, the Hillhall Road, Upper Malone Road and Milltown Road.

There was a similar alert on Saturday which forced delayed kick offs to two Irish League matches.

It was declared a hoax.

And last Monday there was massive tailbacks for commuters on the M1 with another hoax alert.