Main road shut as woman taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries – live

A 79-year-old woman has been taken to hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries after a three-vehicle crash which closed a main road for several hours.

Emergency services were called to the scene after the crash occurred on the A4042 between McDonalds roundabout and Lower New Inn in Pontypool at around 11.50am on Monday.

Police had already been called to the area due to an earlier broken-down lorry and the road was closed in both directions as a result. The northbound side of the carriageway reopened on Monday afternoon but the southbound side remained closed until around 8.30pm – causing heavy traffic and congestion in the area throughout Monday afternoon and evening.

A spokesman for Gwent Police said that officers attended the scene along with paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service and crews from the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service. The crash involved three cars – a Peugeot, a Ford, and a Mercedes – and a passenger in the Mercedes, a 79-year-old woman, was taken to hospital with what police described as “potentially life-threatening injuries”.

Recap everything we know so far: