Treacherous ice forced drivers to abandon their cars in Keighley as chaos erupted last night.

Because of sheet ice, South Street and Halifax Road were virtually impassable.

Those caught up in the mayhem included the town’s firefighters, who battled to get to a car accident with people reportedly trapped.

Firefighter Peter Craven said: ‘‘In all my 17 years in the fire service I have never seen worse conditions, there were cars going all over the place. We had to stop going up Halifax Road to put our snowchains on, we just couldn’t get any grip.’’ Bingley firefighters got to the crashed car first and the people had managed to get themselves out to safety unharmed.

Firefighter Craven added: ‘‘Coming back down the hill was horrendous. Our crew had to jump out to run ahead and get drivers to try and clear out of the way, we were just sliding down.

‘‘The road was covered in sheet ice and it was a kind of hail coming down, absolutely treacherous.

‘‘It seemed half of Keighley was stuck. We just want to say a big thank you to all the drivers who were there and were so patient as we tried to do our job.’’ While the Keighley crew was on Halifax Road, firefighters from Silsden had to cover two other shouts on their patch.

At 9.40pm buses got stuck in Halifax Road at Cross Roads bringing the village to a standstill.

Police were called and alerted the council which sent out gritters.

Earlier in the evening police also had to turn out to an incident in Scott Street, Keighley, after a black Audi A3 crashed in to a cable box – no one was hurt.

Airedale and North Bradford Police superintendent Gary Baker said: ‘‘Due to adverse conditions driving was hazardous however most roads kept moving. We would advise people to take extra caution when travelling today.’’