Oxford was yesterday plunged into gridlock after a serious crash closed The Plain roundabout.

**UPDATE: A CYCLIST, A WOMAN IN HER 30S HAS DIED. A MAN HAS BEEN ARRESTED**

Police were last night yet to confirm the nature of the accident, but eyewitnesses described seeing a woman trapped beneath a tipper lorry.

That lorry could still be seen at the scene of the crash at 5pm yesterday afternoon. A green plastic tarpaulin screened the near side of the truck from view.

READ MORE: As it happened: Updates as serious accident closes roundabout

The collision was said to have happened at around 2.30pm, with emergency crews and police crash investigators still at the roundabout as the Oxford Mail went to press last night.

There were extensive rush hour queues across the city centre after police closed off Cowley Road, Iffley Road, St Clements and Magdalen Bridge.

 

The police road closures extended as far back as St Aldates

The police road closures extended as far back as St Aldates

 

A solitary policeman had also been stationed at the bottom of St Aldates, by Speedwell Street, stopping cars, taxis and buses from heading towards central Oxford.

On the High Street, there was a long line of traffic backing up as buses painstakingly tried to turn around in order to avoid the road closures.

By 4.30pm, pedestrians and cyclists were able to cross the bridge from the city centre to east Oxford after Magdalen College School opened up a cut-through across the school site, allowing people to bypass the roundabout and emerge onto Iffley Road.

 

Police at the crash in The Plain, Oxford, on Tuesday afternoon

Police at the crash in The Plain, Oxford, on Tuesday afternoon

 

And a short time later, part of the roundabout was reopened to allow traffic into town from Cowley Road and Iffley Road.

Bus passengers faced extensive delays, with all routes going into Oxford from the east hit by the road closures.

READ MORE: Road closures after collision

Thames Valley Police, which described the incident as a ‘road traffic collision’, asked via social media for anyone who witnessed the crash to call 101.

 

The scene of the crash on The Plain was hidden from view by a tarpaulin screen

The scene of the crash on The Plain was hidden from view by a tarpaulin screen

 

The collision came less than 24 hours after a man in his 70s was knocked down and killed on the roads in Chipping Norton.

And it was exactly three weeks after a university worker in her 40s was killed when her bicycle was involved in a collision with an HGV on the Oxford Road, Kidlington, near Parkway railway station on February 8.

At the scene of yesterday’s collision, staff at the Age UK charity shop in St Clements told the Oxford Mail that a cyclist had been knocked over in the same spot earlier on Tuesday morning and described the zebra crossing on the approach to the roundabout as ‘dangerous’.

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