Lightning strikes cause trouble

Brenda Saxby was in the room minutes before the lightning struck

A series of lightning storms caused chaos across the South West on Wednesday evening.

A bolt of lightning sparked a fire at a house in Chippenham, Wiltshire, causing thousands of pounds of damage.

The blaze, in Hill Rise, started when lightning hit an aerial and travelled down the cable into an airing cupboard, setting it alight.

And four flights were diverted from Bristol Airport after a series of lightning strikes in the area.

Planes from Paris, Frankfurt, Manchester and Murcia in Spain were all forced to land at other airports because of the storms.

Brenda Saxby, whose Chippenham home was badly damaged in the lightning fire said: "We were all very lucky - I had been in the room split seconds before, and the children were just outside on the landing.

"Things could be a lot worse - we're not insured but we're all alive - material things can be replaced."