A MAN died when he fell from a motorway bridge and crashed through the windscreen of a lorry on the outskirts of Bolton earlier today.

The victim, who has not been identified, plunged 30ft from the bridge and landed on the lorry as it was being driven along the M61 between Farnworth and Kearsley.

Police say the lorry driver saw the man on the bridge seconds earlier and thought he had thrown an object at his vehicle.

It was only when he stopped seconds later that he realised it was the body of a man.

The man is thought to have driven onto the bridge at Junction 2 of the M61 shortly before the tragedy.

A passer-by called the police after seeing him climb over the railings just after 5.30am.

Officers were called to the scene but minutes before they arrived he had already fallen in front of the lorry, which was heading down south-bound carriageway.

He was still alive when an ambulance crew arrived, but he is thought to have died on his way to the Royal Bolton Hospital.

He sustained severe injuries when he hit the lorry's passenger-side wing mirror and windscreen. No one else was involved in the incident.

Police cordoned off two lanes of the motorway for two hours as accident investigators assessed the scene.