THOUSANDS of motorists faced a massive detour – plunging several villages into traffic chaos – after a stolen oil tank overturned and spilt diesel over a major trunk road near York.

The York-bound carriageway of the A19 at Escrick was closed for more than 12 hours yesterday as a team of highways workmen cleared up about 500 litres of diesel. Traffic was diverted via Riccall, Kelfield, Stillingfleet and Naburn until the A19 finally reopened at 3.15pm.

Jenny Balding, clerk to Naburn Parish Council, said the detour had caused chaos in the village – some of the worst she had seen in the 17 years she had lived in Naburn.

“It’s been really bad,” she said. “I was due to go into town for an appointment and the traffic was at a standstill at Naburn Sewage Works, about a mile from where it joins the A19.

“It normally takes me 20 minutes to get in, but I was 20 minutes late for my appointment.”

The tank is thought to have overturned when the thieves went round the corner at the junction with the road to Stillingfleet.

The tank was stolen from Village Green Preserves, situated at an industrial estate in Wheldrake. A member of staff there said that two gates had been forced and a tank containing about 500 litres of vehicle diesel had somehow been removed.

He said that two vehicles had been dragged out of the way so the tank could be taken, causing £2,000 of damage to the vehicles.

He said the tank had been written off when it overturned, and it would cost another £1,000 to replace that.

He said he did not know how the thieves escaped with the fuel.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said highways officials and firefighters were called in to launch a big clean-up operation, and the Environment Agency had also been alerted.

He said the spillage had been reported at 3am yesterday, and the road closed at 3.10am, and reopened 12 hours and five minutes later.

A county council spokeswoman said that a “significant amount of diesel” had been deposited on the road surface.

She said a team of six workmen and drivers, using two sweepers, had used “slag dust” and detergent to clean up the road.

They had also cleaned up drainage ditches after taking advice from the Environment Agency.

She added about 7,500 vehicles travelled in each direction on that stretch of the A19 on a busy day. “It’s one of the busiest roads in the area.”