Slimy suspects blamed for broken traffic lights

It's a traffic light mystery that's been moving at a very slow pace.

At one crossroads in Manchester, the lights kept breaking down and causing big problems for drivers.

They were fixed, they were replaced, but then they'd stop working again..and nobody could work out why.

Well, the answer turned out to be much smaller - and much slimier - than anyone expected: slugs!

Traffic lights at a busy junction in Stretford in Greater Manchester kept stopping working, even after engineers fixed or replaced them.

Experts at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) were initially baffled and couldn't figure out what was going on.

But they eventually discovered that the slugs had been crawling inside the equipment that controls the traffic lights.

It is thought the tiny tresspassers were looking for somewhere warm to hide.

But once they got inside, they interfered with the equipment, causing the traffic lights to stop working.

Local councillor Steve Adshead said it was the first time the highways team had ever come across a problem like this.

Over the summer, engineers carried out work to stop the slugs getting inside.

They checked the equipment for gaps and sealed them all up and so far, the plan seems to be working.

TfGM say there have been no more traffic light issues at the location since the repairs.

So it seems the mystery has finally been solved, and it turns out the unlikely suspects were a group of very determined slugs.

Case closed.