Caravan flips as 'tornado' tears through village

A suspected tornado has left a trail of damage in a Staffordshire village with a caravan flipped over and dozens of cars and homes damaged.

Residents were woken up at about 06:30 BST as the freak high winds tore through Knutton.

The gust - which one villager said caused his whole house to shake - smashed windows, damaged roofs and left bins and other debris scattered across streets.

Senior meteorologist Jim Dale said that with the damage caused the village had been hit by either a tornado or a sudden squall.

Bins tipped over and there was debris in the street following a sudden gust of wind

Resident Steven Hemming said his dad’s caravan had blown over in the wind.

“It’s destroyed a lot of cars, as in write-offs, and people’s living room windows have gone through,” he said.

“The caravan just completely tipped over with the intense burst – it was instantaneous.”

He said the whole house was shaking.

Emergency services are understood to be in the area to assist with the making buildings safe.

Another resident Heather Foster said: “I heard the rain on the window about 6 o'clock, then I heard this mighty whoosh and then bang, bang, bang.”

“It must have been a bit of a tornado,” she said, adding it had been a shock.

Mr Dale said the squall had been caused as a vigorous cold front came through the area.

“Unless you witness the spinning vortex, you could have a squall,” he said.

“That’s probably one down from a tornado, but it’s either one or the other to do that kind of damage.”

He said there were about 80 to 90 of these each year and were quite common in April.

However, they usually occur in rural areas, where they were less likely to cause damage to property, he explained.

“I can’t say with certainty that it was a tornado, but if those who were there witnessed a spinning vortex it would be classed as a mini tornado," Mr Dale continued.

“It’s a bit of a lottery who gets what – you’re quite unlucky if you end up underneath one of these.”