An Essex Police chief has told BBC Essex the force is carefully considering the possibility of removing protestors from the QEII bridge.

The Dartford Crossing remains blocked by Just Stop Oil protesters for the second day in a row.

The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex, was closed on Monday after it was scaled by two climbers from the group.

Essex Police has said it is working with partners to identify the "safest and quickest way to resolve the situation".

The force's Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow told BBC Essex today: "We are looking at all of the options we might have. These guys are about 130 metres above the water and about 55 metres above the road surface.

"So it's extremely challenging, extremely complicated.

"Just to get up to those kind of heights requires some really specialist equipment and some real bravery on the part of the officers and other partners that might well end up going up there.

"It is not a simple task at all."

The environmental activist group has demanded that the Government “halts all new oil and gas licences and consents” and said the climbers will remain on top of the bridge until they are “brought down”.

National Highways said it has no estimation of when the bridge will reopen and that there are about six miles of congestion on either side of the crossing.

Chief Superintendent Anslow added: "We do have officers who are trained to work at height and there is wider capability across the country, in terms of people who are able to work at heights and able to work at such high heights, if you like, and we are exploring all of that.

"We were busy working through that yesterday to try and understand our capability, whilst of course making sure that what we do doesn't end in a tragic outcome.

"We've got to be really careful about how we do things here, with obligations to our staff, to other agencies and to the protestors themselves. So it really isn't simple."

He told BBC Essex the force is closely looking at the option of sending specialist officers up to the high cables on the bridge.

He continued: "We need to understand, are people being put at risk or, National Highways have done some really good work with our contraflows to make sure the tunnel is working and traffic is flowing.

"It is moving more slowly than normal and that is so frustrating for many people that live in that area, I one hundred per cent get it.

"But we do need to make sure that those balance of risks are properly understood before we look to do anything that might be particularly risky in terms of trying to bring people down."