A LORRY driver found himself in a tight spot when he tried to go under a Poole railway bridge - and got stuck halfway in.

A day's work in Poole turned into a nightmare for agency driver Dermot O'Regan when he got wedged against the roof of the tunnel in Bourne Valley Road.

He was using a road map to navigate his way down the unfamiliar roads and had successfully made it through one 11ft 6in tunnel before attempting to pass under the second.

But this was clearly a bridge too far. A car coming in the opposite direction forced him to stick close to the kerb and the lorry, owned by flooring firm Mercado, got firmly wedged against the roof of the tunnel.

Mr O' Regan, from Bristol, said: "I tried to reverse and then I tried to get into the middle of the tunnel but it was just stuck fast.

"All I can say is that I don't know the local roads and obviously did not realise I would get stuck under the bridge. I was just following the A to Z.

"It had been quite a good day up until now. Now I just want to get home."

The incident happened at around 3pm yesterday (August 28) and police attended to direct traffic around the stuck lorry.

Railtrack's rail incident response unit was also called out but thought it unlikely that any major structural damage had been done to the bridge.

Trains were allowed to continue passing over the bridge at reduced speeds of five miles per hour.

After the lorry's tyres were let down a recovery vehicle from Castle Recovery pulled it out from underneath the tunnel.

First published: August 28