A SPRAWLING 40ft tree crashed down after the stormy weather crushing two cars and blocking off an entire road.

A silver Mercedes and silver Audi were both trapped and seriously damaged when the giant yew tree came down at around 10.45am on West Overcliff Drive in Bournemouth.

The owner of the Mercedes, 56-year-old Patrick Marlow parked his car just 30 minutes before and said he felt he had a lucky escape.

Patrick said: “It’s absolutely shocking. I can’t believe such a huge tree has come down and crushed my car and blocked the whole road.

“I would normally walk rather than drive, so it’s very frustrating. I’m just lucky that I wasn’t in the car at the time.

“Obviously we’ve had terrible weather recently, so that must be the reason it’s come down.” Officers from Bournemouth council attended the scene and called the landscaping group to dismantle the tree and process it through the chipper.

Nick Shearer a Tree Officer at Bournemouth council said: “We have been called out to numerous incidents because of the high winds and heavy rain.

“We received the call at 10.45am and the landscaping group were notified to dismantle the tree and drag it away from the cars.”

Police officers were also called and the road was blocked for several hours during the clean-up operation.

One onlooker Steve Sherman said: “So many trees have come down in the woods during the last week because of the terrible weather. I hope the owners of the cars will be able to claim on insurance.”