A Hornchurch man caught on camera the terrifying mayhem caused by a motorist who drove for ten miles in the wrong direction in the fast lane of a motorway.

Romford Recorder: The driver was found to be suffering from mental health problems. Picture: Tom HindThe driver was found to be suffering from mental health problems. Picture: Tom Hind (Image: Archant)

Oncoming drivers were forced to take evasive action in the northbound carriageway of the busy A11 and A14 roads as the woman driver, from Ilford, drove at an estimated 50mph in the direction of Cambridge.

Tom Hind, a piano technician, who took the video on his mobile phone, was a passenger in a car being driven by his dad when he spotted the red Citroën.

“I was checking some emails on my phone, looked up, saw the car, looked back at my phone, and then realised what I had just seen,” he said.

“It was just horrifying. People were honking their horns and flashing lights to get her attention but she just seemed totally oblivious. We were just in sheer amazement.

“In the outside lane of the motorway you are only going to hit one thing and that’s another car. If she’s doing 50 and the other car is doing 70 and there was a family in there, then it would have been horrific.”

Cambridgeshire Police were flooded with 999 calls reporting the incident at around 1.30pm on Sunday.

Officers were quickly set in pursuit of the car, which travelled along the A11 before reaching the junction with the A14, where it continued in the wrong direction.

Police managed to stop the woman before a serious incident occurred by putting a rolling roadblock in place and bringing her to a stop near Exning.

Video of the incident shows drivers moving to avoid the woman’s Citroen, while flashing lights and sounding their horns in warning to her.

A police spokesman said the driver had mental health problems and had been taken home without charge.