Blizzards and black ice wrecked havoc on roads and trains into London today, while Tube failures added to the nightmare.

Unfinished engineering work, signal failures and faulty trains disrupted six Tube lines in the morning rush hour.

The weather was worst in Kent, with up to six inches of snow leaving roads barely passable. A lorry fire at junction 4, near Orpington, on the anticlockwise M25 brought traffic to a standstill.

The M2 from Kent to London remains closed in both directions between junctions 5 and 6 Faversham and Sittingbourne - after a lorry jack-knifed on the ice.

Rail passengers from the Kent coast into London experienced "severe delays", with no early trains running to the triangle between Dover, Ashford and Faversham.

South Eastern Trains warned passengers to travel only "if absolutely essential".

The Met office said black ice and snow over the South East would be at its heaviest for two to three hours in the morning. Conditions will improve steadily from the north through the day as snow turns back to rain.

In London, there were no early trains on the Victoria Line after engineers failed to repair a serious rail defect near Seven Sisters on time. Late-running engineering work also delayed the Piccadilly and District Lines.

Broken trains at Stanmore caused minor delays on the Jubilee Line, while signal failures at Edgware Road disrupted the Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines.