London ground to a halt last night with thousands of traffic jams - as people attempted to flee the city before the second lockdown.

Roads in the capital were gridlocked only hours before the new national lockdown rules came into force.

The Mirror reported that traffic on the North Circular alone stretched to eight miles while data from the SatNav app TomTom showed that there were 1,200 miles of queues and at least 2,624 jams.

According to the data there was also a large amount of congestion in other cities in England, and the M25 was brought to a standstill.

According to the RAC, breakdown reports were up to 15 per cent and there were at least 90 minute delays.

The Mirror also reported that frustrated motorists took to Twitter, where one user described the London roads as "chaos" while another user said it took them two hours to drive five miles.

The race to get out of the city came amid fears that the second lockdown could be extended beyond the official end date, December 2.

Cabinet secretary Michael Gove told Sky News last Sunday that the shutdown could be extended, shout it fail to dramatically reduce the rate of infection.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke from Downing Street yesterday to assure people that the measures will end by the agreed date.

He said: "Believe me, we will end these autumn measures on December 2 when they expire."