A man was airlifted to hospital following a five vehicle pile-up on the M54 today as snow caused chaos on the roads across Shropshire.

Schools were also closed as heavy snow deluged parts of the county and weather experts are warning there is no end to the big freeze in sight.

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A lorry, a van and three cars were involved in the collision on the westbound carriageway between junction 2 at Wolverhampton and junction 3 at Albrighton just before 9am today.

Queues formed on both sides of the motorway as the eastbound carriageway was also closed to allow the air ambulance to land safely. The driver of the van, a man in his 50s, suffered chest and upper body injuries and was flown to Selly Oak Hospital. No-one else was injured.

North and south Shropshire were the worst affected by the weather suffering heavy falls of snow and the Corvedale was one of the first places to be cut off with roads into the area closed. Schools that were closed included Bittlerley CofE Primary, near Ludlow, Criftins Primary near Ellesmere, Selattyn near Oswestry and St Georges in Clun, Clunbury, Clee Hill and Brown Clee – while heating failures closed schools at West Felton, Worthen and Weston Rhyn.

Other schools that were affected by the weather were Bishop’s Castle Community College, Lacon Childe School, Cleobury Mortimer, Claverley, Bishop Hooper, Hopton Wafers, Ludlow College, Corvedale, Farlow, St Mary’s at Bucknell and Onny Primary School. Shropshire Council has reassured motorists that it has enough gritting salt to keep main roads open through the cold snap.

Across the rest of Britain continuing winter conditions brought travel chaos. Manchester airport was closed all morning and East Coast Main Line rail services between London and Leeds were among the train journeys which had to be axed.