A man has said he and his wife were ‘very lucky’ after a tree fell onto a road in Fairford shortly after they ran past it. 

Chris Williams captured the above picture of the fallen tree on Leafield Road in Fairford during the a hailstorm earlier today.

He said: “My wife, Marianne, and I set of for our usual 5k lunchtime run, from Fairford to Quenington and back, with thunder rumbling in the distance and black clouds well out to the west.

“We had only got less than 2k up the road when the storm suddenly hit us, with a very strong wind, continuous thunder and lightning with hailstones which really stung as they hit us. We had turned round by this point, but it was like a scene out of the movie Twister, though with slightly fewer cows flying past!

“As we came back into Fairford there were small tree branches, twigs and leaves, as well as a huge tree branch that was blocking the road with a good layer of ice from the hailstones - We were very lucky as we had only run past here five minutes before.

"After clearing the small branches, we warned approaching traffic about the huge tree branch that was blocking the road from one side to the other.

“As soon as we got home, I grabbed my phone and ran back to get the photo. After that I had a quick warming shower and headed back with my chain saw to try to help clear the road.”

Chris said just half an hour later a team of workers were already there with a chainsaw and tractor, dragging the pieces of tree away.