A 57-year-old man has been arrested after pretending to be injured on the East Tāmaki overbridge on Auckland’s Southern Motorway.

Emergency services were called to reports of a man who appeared injured at about 7.46am on Monday.

Police arrived to find the man “who was pretending to be injured as part of what we can only describe as reckless behaviour in an attempt to gain publicity”, Inspector Danny Meade said.

Traffic was unusually heavy during peak-hour as a result.