Police are appealing for witnesses after a lorry travelling along the M5 was struck by a sandbag.

A large heavy goods vehicle was travelling south just before J9 near Tewkesbury when the driver saw 3 people standing on the bridge as he approached the junction shortly before 11pm yesterday.

One of those people threw something directly at the lorry smashing through the windscreen.

The item, a hessian sandbag, narrowly missed the driver, spraying sand all around the inside of the vehicle.

Fortunately the driver, despite being very shocked, managed to retain control of his vehicle and stop safely.

The driver described the three youngsters standing on the bridge as being aged around 15-16 years old, quite short and all wearing dark clothing.

Police are appealing to any passing motorists who may have seen a group of teenagers in the area close to the junction or on the Northway Lane bridge to contact them, in particular anyone who may have dash-cam footage.

PC Tim Griffiths, one of the attending officers investigating the incident said: "I'm appealing for the person responsible to come forward.

"I suspect this is probably the actions of someone out on Halloween with their friends, probably showing off and messing around, who thought it would be funny to throw the sandbag at the lorry, not thinking about the ramifications of their actions.

"I cannot stress in the most serious terms how dangerous it is to do such a stupid thing.

"The lorry driver could have been seriously hurt or even killed.

"If he had been rendered unconscious or had lost control of his lorry then we could easily have been dealing with serious injuries or fatalities."

If you were out yesterday night and saw what happened or you know who is responsible call 101 quoting incident number 528 of October 31.

Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.