Image copyright Christian Svensson/www.skaraborgswebben.se Image caption Salvage workers spent the night reloading the meatballs

Swedish meatballs are always a welcome sight on the dinner table, but less so when 20 tonnes of them block the road in front of you.

This is the spectacle that faced unwary drivers on 15 November along the Skara-Lundsbrunn road in southwest Sweden, when icy evening conditions meant that the trailer of a lorry skidded into a ditch, taking the meatball mountain with it, Skara Lans Tidning reports.

The lorry itself remained on the road, but all the meatballs needed to be first offloaded onto the carriageway before the trailer could be hauled out of the ditch.

"The trailer was heavier than the lorry itself, and it is very slippery out there," police officer Tommy Emriksson told Swedish TV .

No one was injured in the accident, and social media users have viewed the incident with humour.

Some Twitter users have offered to help the clear-up operation with knife and fork, and one inquired whether a lorry-load of spaghetti might follow.

The transport authorities warn that because other roads around Skara are busy, motorists should drive carefully.

Image copyright Gunnar Creutz/Wikicommons Image caption Swedish meatballs in their natural environment

Reporting by Alistair Coleman and Martin Morgan

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