UK Weather: Woman And Boy Injured In Gale Force Winds

Woman And Boy Injured After Gusts Blow Tree Onto Car

A woman and a 10-year-old boy have been taken to hospital after a tree crashed on to their car as strong winds returned to the UK.

Emergency services were called to the incident outside Shenley Primary School in the Hertfordshire village of Shenley at around 7.50am, where the woman and boy suffered minor injuries.

Gusts of up to 76mph were forecast throughout the country, with the north of Wales expected to see the highest speeds. Winds of up to 87mph were recorded at Capel Curig in Wales at 2am following a brief respite from storms on Tuesday which resulted in two deaths.

Forecasters said the winds were now hailing from a north-westerly rather than a westerly direction, bringing with them a drop in temperature.

Sally Webb, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It will be quite blustery later but through the day the winds are weakening gradually. Overnight it should calm down a lot compared to how it has been."

The Met Office issued yellow warnings of wind for Strathclyde, south-west Scotland and Lothian Borders, Northern Ireland, Wales and north-west England.

London Fire Brigade attended a string of wind-related incidents across the capital, when gusts blew a wind turbine in Barking and scaffolding in Tavistock Square into "precarious positions" and later a tree tumbled on to a house in Chingford, trapping four people.

North Yorkshire Police said it received a "high number" of weather-related calls.

The A66 was closed after a tree fell on to the A19 and several lorries were blown over in high winds, a spokesman said.

The Highways Agency said the Severn Crossing between England and Wales was closed to high-sided vehicles and motorcycles in both directions due to strong winds.

The Humber Bridge and the M62 over the Ouse Bridge, near Howden, were also both closed to high-sided vehicles.

North Yorkshire Fire Service said they were called to flooding in the Skipton area and a lorry driver was taken to hospital when an HGV overturned on the A1 at Leeming.

Crews were also called to two incidents of cars trapped in flood water - one in Acaster Malbis, near York, and the other at Embsay, near Skipton.