A “mini-tornado” wreaked havoc in a UK city – with terrified residents likening the noise to “a bomb going off” or “a train coming”.
The heavy winds caused chaos in a Coventry suburb – uprooting trees and damaging property – on Tuesday night.
Dramatic scenes unfolded as a colossal tree estimated to be around 100ft tall fell across gardens on Beanfield Avenue.
Other trees were “snapped like twigs” in the ferocious winds, say householders.
The strong winds didn’t spare houses either, with tiles torn from roofs.
They also ripped fence panels from their posts – and bricks were seen soaring through the air.
Resident Kay Cooke gave a frightening account of the night’s events. She said: “I thought the conservatory roof was going to come in, and the chairs outside were going everywhere.”
“The destruction was rapid, barely a few minutes long, but it prevented us from opening our front door due to the unrelenting wind. I heard crashing and everything and thought, ‘What is going on? ‘ as the bricks came down.”
“I’m insured, but I think I’ll still have to pay around £300 I imagine. It lasted about five to ten minutes. It was just out of the blue, completely unexpected.”
Retiree Derek Foster, 66, was similarly stunned by the chaos. He said: “It sounded like a bomb going off, I couldn’t figure out what it was at first.
“The trees were being shaken by the wind in a way I’ve never seen before. it must have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to people’s roofs.”
“Several small trees were snapped like twigs. A massive one came down further along the street.”
Amid the pandemonium, Neil McCutchion saw his Beanfield Avenue property get hammered as high winds tore into his scaffolding. Describing the brief but brutal event, he said: “There was a massive wind for about five minutes.
“All the scaffolding panels just came down. Two doors down a tree came down and knocked a fence over. I was washing up in the back and I noticed the trees starting to sway a bit.”
“And then they were bending virtually either way and that’s when we noticed the planks were flying off the scaffolding.”
In a similar account, resident David Powers told BBC: “I’ve never heard anything like it – it was very dramatic. At first, I thought it might be thunder but it sounded more like a big train coming.
“It took all the bins.-It didn’t just blow them over – it threw them into the road.”
The powerful winds left Curtis Carvell with a “massive hole” in his garden, as he lamented: “The tree has gone across about four gardens. It’s not every day you have a tree fall over – it’s probably been there for 200 years.”
Marian Allder also chimed in, recounting how her property was hit: “About 10 ridge tiles came off our roof. It was definitely a mini-tornado – it was terrifying.”