Manhole cover blows in Gloucester narrowly missing family

A family had a lucky escape after a manhole cover "exploded" in a Gloucester street, narrowly missing them.

Jode Wardell filmed the metal slab flying into the air and landing just a metre from his wife, Adriana, after water pressure built up during flash flooding on Tuesday.

"If she had been one step to the left of it, the weight of it would have killed her - the blast of air was incredible, like a bomb,"

Severn Trent Water said when flash flooding hits it can cause the sewers to fill very quickly.

"In this case the rapid increase in air pressure forced the manhole cover out of the ground - this is a very unusual occurrence," a spokesman said.