A heroic police officer praised for holding on to a van hanging precariously over a motorway bridge says he was “just doing his job”.

PC Martin Willis faced a nerve-wracking, 15-minute wait for emergency services to arrive and rescue the trapped motorist on the A1(M) in West Yorkshire early on Friday morning.

The traffic officer was first at the scene and grabbed the vehicle to “stop it swaying in the wind” after it skidded off the road in icy conditions.

PC Willis tweeted he couldn’t “begin to describe my relief” when West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services (WYFRS) arrived to free the driver.

“It was scary as I was worried another collision could occur and hit us on the hard shoulder as traffic was speeding past. I'm only just doing my job though,” he wrote. “It was balancing so I just had to hold it still.