'We were lucky to get out alive'

FAMILY TELLS OF TORNADO TERROR AS HOME BEGAN TO COLLAPSE

- ANDREW BARDSLEY & PAUL BYRNE HOLLIE BONE

A HUGE clean-up operation is continuing after a 160mph tornado ripped through a Greater Manchester town.

Stalybridge residents are counting the cost of the extreme weather event, said to be the strongest tornado seen in the UK for almost 20 years, after it caused widespread damage across the town.

The roofs of two houses were ripped off, while the winds of up to 160mph brought down chimneys and roof tiles, as well as uprooting trees.

Cars were smashed by falling debris, and a piece of slate even became lodged into one vehicle.

The tornado hit the town in Tameside shortly before on midnight Wednesday.

About 100 properties were damaged in all. No one was hurt.

Yesterday, a major clean-up operation was evident across the town.

The two homes on Hough Hill Road which had their roofs ripped off were fenced off, as engineers assessed the damage.

Part of the roof of one property continues to hang precariously over the front of the building.

Gareth and Lyndsey Moody and three of their children were at home in one of the two properties when the tornado hit, and have told of their horror.