A PAIR of cows destined for the slaughterhouse gave hundreds of rush-hour motorists a bum steer when they made a bid for freedom yesterday.

The duo escaped on to the A1(M) after the trailer they were travelling in overturned.

Traffic ground to a halt just south of the Chester-le-Street interchange at about 7.15am, as the animals sauntered back and forth across both the north and southbound carriageways.

Northbound drivers were caught in tailbacks up to seven miles long, stretching back as far as the Carrville interchange near Durham City.

Several at the front of the queue left their cars and spent 15 minutes chasing the cows up the motorway embankment and into a nearby field.

The pair, a Belgian blue and a Friesian, both aged 30 months, then enjoyed several hours of fleeting freedom, happily munching grass.

A police off-road vehicle was used to move the vehicle and trailer on to the hard shoulder, and traffic was moving freely again by 7.45am.

The cows belong to a farming family at Piercebridge, near Darlington, and were being transported to a slaughterhouse in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, when the accident happened.

A police spokesman said: "The farmer was travelling north in a Range Rover.

"He was driving relatively slowly when he was overtaken by a large lorry. The slipstream seems to have buffeted the trailer, which unsettled the two cows.

"Collectively, they weigh more than a tonne, and their movement flipped the trailer and then the Range Rover.

"Other drivers herded them off the motorway and into a field. Once they were safely coralled, they were left to their own devices, and were eating grass, oblivious to the chaos they had caused."

The Range Rover driver, who has not been named, suffered slight head and facial injuries and was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham for precautionary checks, before being released last night.

The farm sent another vehicle out to collect the cows but decided to grant the animals an extended stay of execution.

The police spokesman said: "They have been given a temporary reprieve and taken to another farm to make sure they suffered no ill effects.

"But once that is established, they will be taken to the slaughterhouse."