Storm deaths reach eight

Overturned lorries resulted in five deaths

The death toll from the gales which swept across Scotland and northern England on Monday and early Tuesday has risen to eight.

As the clear-up continued, a woman injured by a falling tree died in hospital.

The worst storms in a decade also damaged buildings, blew over lorries and brought down power lines.

Thousands of homes in northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland have been without electricity.

We are appalled and devastated that something like this could happen to this poor woman

Martin Sheppard, York Diocese

Engineers in Scotland are using helicopters to trace the damage to miles of power lines.

In Northumberland and Durham, 200 engineers are working overnight on Tuesday to restore electricity to affected communities.

The eighth victim of the storms was Kathleen Nash, 42, of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.

Police investigation

She had been recovering in hospital after being hit by a falling tree outside a Perthshire hotel.

Her partner John Speirs, 42, of Barrhead in Glasgow, died within minutes of the tree falling on top of them outside the Hilton Dunkeld Hotel.

In another accident, Debra Exton, 45, from East Leake in Nottinghamshire, died after being hit by masonry that fell from a church in York.

Police and health and safety officials were continuing their investigations into the death at All Saints Church, but it is believed there were no suspicious circumstances.

Tragic accident

Martin Sheppard, spokesman for the Diocese of York, said Mrs Exton was hit by part of a pinnacle on the nave of the medieval church.

He said inspections of the church, which is 600 years old in places, had been carried out every five years in accordance with health and safety regulations.

Debra Exton was hit by falling masonry and died

Mr Sheppard added: "We are appalled and devastated that something like this could happen to this poor woman and our concern is to be as open and honest as possible about what's happened."

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said the death was being treated as a "tragic accident".

The dead woman's son has spoken of his "disbelief" on hearing of her death.

Mark Shortland, 22, said: "We have not really got anyone to blame because it was an accident. It's just a freak accident".

One man died and a woman was seriously injured when a tree fell as they walked in the grounds of a hotel in Dunkeld, Perthshire.

Train services were returning to normal on Tuesday although some rail companies experienced early morning cancellations to some routes.

Major roads which were closed at the height of the storm have also reopened and were cleared of debris that included fallen traffic lights and overturned vehicles.

Five deaths were a result of lorries overturning in separate incidents in Scotland and England.

Elsewhere a driver on the A68 in the Pennines was lucky to escape when a freak gust blew his lorry out of control.

Sergeant Kevin Garven, of Northumbria Police, said it served as a lesson for everyone that high-sided vehicles should pull over and stop in high winds.

Ferry services, which experienced delays, diversions or cancellations because of high seas and winds, were also returning to normal.

Flood warnings

Malcolm Tarling of the Association of British Insurers said it was too early to assess the cost of damage but added that last time there were strong winds the bill was £260m.

The BBC Weather Centre says the worst is over but the weather will remain unsettled for the foreseeable future.

BBC meteorologist Sarah Wilmshurst said it would be windy across the UK for the next few days, with gales towards the end of the week.

"It will be nothing like the severe gales and storms of yesterday," she said.

But bands of rain over the next few days means there is a chance of flooding, particularly in western areas, she said.

There are currently 18 flood warnings in place across the UK, including two in east England, eight in the Midlands and eight in Scotland.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency says heavy rain and melting snow in the upper hills was expected to cause water levels to rise in the Tay and Earn rivers and their tributaries over the next 12 hours.

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