A Buckden woman has described the frightening moment a tornado ripped through her garden, splitting a 20-year-old tree in half.

Angela Harris, 69, said she was inside her house on Thursday, May 22, when all her windows and doors started rattling. When she went outside she discovered a tree, which she and her husband planted 20 years ago, was split in several places.

“It was quite frightening because it just came suddenly,” she said.

“I could hear all the windows and doors of the house shaking it was so severe. When I went outside I looked up to my acacia tree and it looked like a mad axeman had been at it. It has been split three or four times down the middle. The tree meant quite a lot to me. It was huge and was nearly 20 years old as we planted it after we moved here.

“My husband wanted to take a chainsaw to it but I told him not to as I think the remnants will flower.”

Mrs Harris added: “My neighbour was worse hit. He had a green house, outbuildings and 15-20 fence panels he just put up damaged by the tornado.

“I was speaking to another neighbour and he told me that despite the wars he has been in and the weird places he’s been, it was the most frightened he has ever been.

“I’m not bothered by storms, there had been another earlier in the day with hail, but this was frightening as you have no control. I have never experienced a twister and didn’t really expect to here either.

“Tornados can pop up at any time and have a very narrow path. I have a friend in Buckden village who didn’t know anything about it.”

As reported by The Hunts Post last week, a number of tornadoes were spotted over Huntingdonshire with readers capturing the rare cloud formation on camera and video.

The photos and video clips can be viewed at www.huntspost24.co.uk.