There was pandemonium during the evening rush hour on Friday when an articulated lorry got trapped beneath a railway bridge.

The vehicle was too high for the bridge in Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park, and got stuck at about 4.20pm – causing large queues in both directions and hefty disruption to rail services.

Police said there no injuries, but the driver was arrested for driving without due care and attention.

Witnesses described angry scenes as motorists became frustrated with the delay – the road was closed until after 7pm and railway lines were shut for over an hour, causing delays of 90 minutes for passengers.

David Churchill, who lives nearby in Blackstock Road, said: “There was just this huge tailback of cars because they were all trying to get up Stroud Green Road but they couldn’t because it was closed off.

“Everyone was beeping their horns like mad. I thought some of them were going to get into fisticuffs because they started kicking off with each other. It was about 5pm on a Friday so I guess they wanted to get home. It was pandemonium.

“The weird thing is that it looked like the driver cleared the first part of the bridge but then hit another part once he’d got a bit further under.

“Loads of people just couldn’t believe it and were taking photos. Either that driver needs to check the height of his vehicle or the council need to sort out the sign which says what height the bridge is, if it’s wrong.”

Steven Capilli had just jumped on the bus at Finsbury Park when he saw the aftermath of the crash.

He said: “He must have been travelling quite fast the way it kicked up with the wheels in the air. It looked solidly wedged in.”

Other people took to Twitter, spreading word of the incident.

One person tweeted a picture of the lorry tapped under the bridge with the caption: “Oh dear - a little miscalculation here in Finsbury Park”.

Another posted: “Happens all the time. Drivers need to start reading signs.”

Chris Penn, from First Capital Connect, said: “The bridge strike was an unfortunate incident to happen during our service recovery due to severe disruption caused by signalling and power failures that Network Rail had to repair during the morning peak. The disruption caused delays of up to 90 minutes, however after a strong recovery effort from our staff we were preparing to run a full service during the evening peak. The lorry incident unfortunately scuppered this and our staff carried on working to make sure that our passengers got home as quickly and safely as possible.”