Trick-or-treaters were left without their Halloween pumpkins after hundreds of them fell off a lorry causing traffic chaos on a motorway.

The truck was travelling along the A2 motorway in Konin, Poland, when it lost control and the door flung open.

The spillage caused an early Halloween fright for hundreds of drivers who were were stuck in lengthy traffic jams while emergency services cleared up the pumpkin mess during rush hour.

Motorway worker Radoslaw Radziszewski said: ''On the A2 motorway near the Modla junction in Konin, thousands of pumpkins from a truck spilled onto the road causing difficulties for drivers.''

The mess took around three hours for authorities to clean up. They had to gather up all of the pumpkins and scrape away the splattered flesh from the tarmac to prevent cars from skidding.

Officials said pumpkins fell from the lorry because the boxes in which they were packed had not been properly secured. When the flaps on the side of lorry flung open, the pumpkins came crashing out, tumbling in front of other road users.

Radoslaw added: ''In all my years of woking this is not something I've even seen before. It was very unusual. All of the pumpkins were being delivered to shops for Halloween.''