Thousands in dark after Storm Ciaran

People are rescued from their holiday chalets at Freshwater Beach Holiday Park in Dorset as Storm Ciaran swept across the country

GUSTS of more than 100mph have left thousands of homes without power, forced school closures and caused travel chaos after Storm Ciaran battered the south of England and the Channel Islands.

Damage to properties on Jersey meant some had to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in a hotel, with one woman saying hailstones "bigger than a golf ball" had broken her windows.

In the south of England, hundreds of schools closed because of the risk to pupils but Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum (LRF) downgraded its major incident on Thursday afternoon as the area had not experienced the "full extent of the forecast weather"

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Bartolomeo, LRF chairman, said: "While we have seen flooding of properties and roads, power outages and disruption to the highways networks caused by the wind and rain, we have thankfully not seen the full extent of the forecast weather, and we are now in a position to stand down the major incident response."