POLICE say it was lucky no-one was killed after three teens played chicken on the M4 on Friday night.

Two drivers raised the alarm after seeing the youngsters aged about 14 or 15, who were wearing dark clothing, running across all three westbound carriageways at different times at around 10pm.

Police immediately ordered speed restriction signs to be lowered to 50mph while six officers carried out an extensive search around the M4 Leigh Delamere services.

Police say the teenagers not only risked their own lives but the lives of motorists as well by running to the central reservation and back.

They are urging parents to make sure their children are aware of the dangers of high speed roads.

Officers from the tri-force traffic team and Chippenham and Malmesbury neighbourhood policing teams were involved in the search, and traffic queues on roads leading to Junction 17 built up, before the hunt was called off after about an hour.

Sergeant Phil Connor of Chippenham NPT said: “We had two separate reports of kids running across the motorway and matrixes were set at 9.56pm.

“There was a queue building up, compounded by a broken down vehicle. Our officer had difficulty getting to the scene as the whole area became gridlocked. He was stuck in traffic moving at 40mph in lane three.”

Police searched Leigh Delamere services, the overbridge and fields around but found no children.

“It is not known where they are from,” said Sgt Connor. “It is very lucky that police aren’t dealing with a fatality.

“I would appeal to parents to ensure that they educate their children as to the dangers of going anywhere near the M4 or other fast carriageways. It is extremely dangerous.

“There are criminal offences for people being on foot on the motorway and anyone found will be dealt with robustly.”

Walking on a motorway or slip road, except in an emergency, is an offence that carries a fine of up to £2,500.

A woman in her 30s was killed in January after being struck by a car while walking along the M25 near Staines just before 3am. In 2007, a 15-year-old boy died playing chicken on the M65 near Burnley in Lancashire.