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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Josh Bolton & Serena Richards

Beer garden completely destroyed as 'mini tornado' swirls tables and rips up concrete

A pub's beer garden has been left completely destroyed after being hit by a " mini tornado ".

Punters at the Forestdale Arms in Croydon, South London, were stunned when a sudden gust of wind threw heavy garden tables into the air and even ripped up slabs of concrete on Sunday evening.

One witness told My London : "It was raining then it suddenly got really windy. All of a sudden one of the tables in the garden was in the air swirling round and so was the gazebo. The doors blew in and one of the windows caved inwards.

"One of the tables ended up on the other side of the road. Slates were falling off of the houses opposite and one landed on one of the regulars' van.

"The wind was so strong it even ripped up concrete slabs."

A sudden gust of wind threw heavy garden tables into the air (Silvercloud22/Twitter)

It has not been confirmed by the Met Office if the incident was a tornado.

But a spokesperson for the weather service said: "There are a lot of active thunderstorms moving across parts of the UK, particularly the southern and southeastern parts of the UK that has been the case for the last few hours.

"So it’s certainly possible that a small tornado has formed in Croydon because we have the right atmospheric conditions for that to happen. We do see approximately 100 tornadoes in the UK a year.”

The incident lasted for around a minute before the winds calmed down slightly.

The incident even ripped up slabs of concrete on Sunday evening (Silvercloud22/Twitter)

There was also damage in Forestdale and New Addington where several brick walls were torn down by the winds and had roofs damaged.

The Met Office had put a yellow weather warning in place and warned of a chance of "sudden flooding" as rain poured down on London over the weekend.

The Met Office had warned there was a small chance that some homes and businesses could be flooded and power cuts could occur as lightning strikes, hail and strong winds hit the capital.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said that storms could lead to 20 to 30 millimetres of rainfall in one hour, causing flash flooding.

Heavy rain over the weekend caused roads to flood in Essex (Stephen Huntley/HVC)

"It is because of the risk of some heavy thunderstorms coming through, talk of 20 to 30 millimetres perhaps in just an hour, and for some 40 to 60 (millimetres) in two to three hours," he said.

"So, whilst the totals won't be that high, we're talking flash flooding, surface water flooding, just because of intense rates in a short period of time.

"However, people could see some sunny spells next week once the storms are out of the way."

He added that the only concern could be some further heavy rain this evening.

Lightning strikes close to Portland Bill lighthouse on Sunday (DanielSands/BNPS)

"The only slight cause for concern is a system that comes through Tuesday night into Wednesday," he said.

"That could bring some heavy rain, particularly for western parts."

On Sunday, National Rail reported disruption caused by heavy flooding on train routes between Stourbridge Junction and Birmingham Snow Hill, and Stoke-On-Trent and Macclesfield.

There were also reports on social media of flooded roads in Lincolnshire.

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