FAMILIES were warned to evacuate their homes when part of a 40-foot tree smashed into a car in Colehill on Thursday.

Steve Summer, 47, heard an “almighty bang” at around 6.30am as a limb broke off a leylandii conifer in a nearby property and crashed into his parked 4x4 in Marshfield.

He, his partner Angela Cassidy, 48, and two sets of their neighbours were advised to leave by police in case any more of the tree fell during the high winds.

Mr Summer, a motorbike mechanic, said: “I was getting ready for work and was up having a cup of coffee when I heard a creaking noise.

“There was an almighty bang and my car alarm went off.

“I knew straight away it had come down on my car.”

The green Nissan Terrano is a write-off, he says.

Tree surgeons were sent round to remove the fallen limbs from the road and make safe the remaining bank of three conifers, which are in the back garden of a house in front of Ms Cassidy’s Synergy Housing Association flat.

The couple spent the morning clearing debris and dead birds from their front garden.

Ms Cassidy, who works at Wimborne’s Victoria Hospital, is worried about more of the swaying tree coming down, and has been offered B&B accommodation in the meantime.

“The tree missed my lounge window by inches,” she said.

“It’s a nightmare – people have been complaining about it for years.

“If the rest comes down it’ll fall this way again. It could kill the people upstairs and then come down on the middle of us.

“An old person walking past would not be able to move fast enough if it fell.

“Police were advising us to leave our properties as the rest of it might come down.”

A spokesman for Synergy said they would chop the tree down once the wind drops.