Tanker and multi-car crash causes Harbour Bridge chaos

Lanes in both directions are now open and flowing after an accident involving a tanker and several cars caused traffic chaos on and around the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Emergency crews and police were called to the south side of the Bradfield Highway around 1.15pm today, when a tanker, owned by Ron Finemore Transport, collided with several cars.

The damaged petrol tanker and cars have now been removed.

Images show how the tanker lay in a horizontal position, sitting across and blocking northbound lanes earlier today, leading to traffic congestion problems on and around Sydney's landmark roadway.

Initial information was that a car and a semi-trailer collided head-on, on the main deck of the Harbour Bridge, between the southern pylons and the old toll plaza area.

Up to 40 emergency service personnel attended the crash site, with a Careflight chopper landing on the empty bridge to rescue the injured.

Careflight confirms that four cars were involved in the crash – a tanker and three cars.

They say they treated four patients at the scene, including a 48-year-old woman who was trapped unconscious in a car, and suffering head injuries.

She is now said to be in a critical condition at Royal North Shore Hospital.

The truck driver avoided hospital, while a woman in her 20s has been taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with chest injuries, alongside a man in his 20s who is suffering spinal injuries.

Pictures show the tanker's crumpled nose at the rail guard fence separating the car lanes from the train line earlier today.

The tanker was not carrying petrol but managed to rupture a water main which runs alongside the train tracks. Water was seen gushing onto the road.