A MINI tornado could have struck a pair of houses in a St Albans road during last night s heavy rain. At around 5pm in Jennings Road, lead roofing tiles were lifted from a pair of semi-detached houses and a giant trampoline landed upside down in a tree. A

A MINI tornado could have struck a pair of houses in a St Albans road during last night's heavy rain.

At around 5pm in Jennings Road, lead roofing tiles were lifted from a pair of semi-detached houses and a giant trampoline landed upside down in a tree.

At the time heavy rain was falling but there was no wind.

Next-door neighbour Jill Stevens and her 10-year-old daughter Esme were about to go out when it struck.

She said: "It peeled off next door's lead roofing and put it on our wall and lifted their giant trampoline."

The gust appeared to have come over the roof of the adjoining pair of houses and funnelled between the houses.

Jill said: "I ventured outside and saw some lead roofing on the dividing wall. It was an absolutely incredible force and it was lucky no-one's car was damaged.

"We felt the force of it and it has taken down one of the trees in the front garden. If anyone had been outside, it would have enough to lift up a child."

She added: "We were nearly out in it and were just going out to the car when a number of tiles hit the window. It was a bit scary."

A spokesman for the Meteorological Office said that it could have been a mini tornado but he thought it was more likely to have been a squall, a down draught of fast-moving cold air associated with convective activity.

He added: "Because it comes from a great height it happens very quickly and could be just that localised. It is just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.