Fierce winds batter West Midlands

Gusts reached speeds of up to 45mph as heavy rain fell across the West Midlands, with forecasters warning there will be more heavy rain today.

Two planes faced difficulty landing at Birmingham Airport due to the high winds, and train lines serving the site had to be suspended while the flights arrived safely.

Several trees fell down, one toppling onto a house and car in Wolverhampton.

It damaged the garage of a home in Penn, narrowly missing the bay window of the bungalow.

Robin and Sally Hughes were watching Flog It in their home in Rowan Crescent, Penn, when the large Silver Birch toppled over.

Branches hit tiles and also damaged a Peugeot 307 which was parked on the drive of neighbours Florence and Gordon Poole.

Mr and Mrs Hughes said they heard a 'loud bang' as the large tree snapped and fell towards the bungalows just before 5pm yesterday, crashing into their garage canopy.

Nobody was injured and tree experts were sent to clear it up last night.

Mr Hughes, a 76-year-old grandfather-of-two, said: "It was a massive bang, it shook the front of the bungalow.

"I always put my car on the drive but something told me to put it on the gravel front. If I hadn't it would have been crushed to pieces."

At the airport, a Flybe flight BE854 from Edinburgh radioed airport traffic control to say it was having 'operation problems' caused by the heavy gusts.

As a precaution, lines above nearby railway tracks at Birmingham International were powered down at 8.19pm following a request from the emergency services, meaning all trains were stopped until 8.29pm.

The flight landed safely at 8.25pm.

A spokesman for Flybe said there were 114 passengers on board but the plane landed safely following 'operational issues resulting from the exceptionally high gusting winds'.

Shortly after, Monarch flight ZB495 from Larnaca in Cyprus attempted to land twice unsuccessfully, before setting down safely on the third time around.

Elsewhere, firefighters were called to secure roof tiles which had been blown off the top of a home in Tennyson Road, Stafford.

Flooding was also reported in Major Street, in All Saints, Wolverhampton.

Across the country, wind speeds of up to 90mph were recorded with power cuts at thousands of homes were plunged into darkness.

A search for a missing sailor who fell overboard from a small cargo ship on the River Trent in North Lincolnshire had to be called off because of the conditions, while a 23-year-old woman died in Ireland when a tree fell on her car.

A 19-year-old man was also injured and taken to hospital when his car was hit by a falling tree in Warwickshire.

The Environment Agency issued a string of flood warnings, with 18 in place in the Midlands, including for the River Stour.

Football fixtures were also hit by the bad weather, with a Sheffield Wednesday's home match against Wigan called off and Stoke City's clash with Manchester United temporarily suspended due to hailstones.