Trees crashing down across capital as high winds strike
Freak weather battered the capital today ripping up tress and damaging homes.
A woman and a 10-year-old boy had a lucky escape as high winds sent a tree crashing down on top of their car as the "very rare" weather continued to cause chaos.
The woman is believed to have been dropping the youngster off at school when the tree was up-rooted.
Ambulance crews treated the pair at the scene outside Shenley Primary School in Hertfordshire before they were taken to a nearby hospital. Their conditions are not life-threatening.
Last night saw damage across London and many reported TV aerials, roof tiles and even garden sheds destroyed.
London Fire Brigade attended a string of wind-related incidents overnight, when gusts damaged a wind turbine in Barking and scaffolding in Tavistock Square was moved into a "precarious position".
Just after midnight, firefighters were called to reports of a tree that had tumbled onto a house in strong winds in Chingford, east London, trapping four people inside.
A spokeswoman said: "Two fire engines, a fire rescue unit and around 15 firefighters attended the incident. They used a saw to cut away some branches and four people were then able to leave the house.
"Firefighters called a tree surgeon and BT engineer to the scene."
One of the two men who died in the high winds on Tuesday was named by police as married father-of-three Christopher Hayes, 51, who was killed when a tree crushed his parked van in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The second death was a crew member on board a tanker owned by Pritchard-Gordon Tankers Ltd, which was hit by a large wave off the coast on the south Devon/Cornwall border.
Julian Mayes of forecasters Meteo Group said there would be more strong winds tonight before the weather became calmer before the weekend.
He said: "We won't be equalling the winds overnight and two days ago, but we will see wind speeds of up to 55mph gusting. For London this is very rare - it doesn't often get that windy.
"It looks like the weather will settle down by the weekend and early next week high pressure will give us dry weather again, with quite a noticable change."
