Four teenagers die in crash as storms batter Britain
Four teenage boys were killed in a car crash on Saturday as gale-force winds of up to 100mph battered parts of Britain.
The friends were travelling in a blue Rover which hit a garden wall in the Moseley area of Birmingham during heavy rain in the early hours of the morning.
Three of the dead were aged 15, 16 and 17. Police did not disclose the age of the fourth.
They were named locally as Hasni Ali, Hadi Suwef, his younger brother Kamal Suwef and Hamza Siraj, who were pupils at Hall Green Secondary School.
All died at the scene and a West Midlands Police spokeswoman said: “We have not established at this stage the cause of the crash, although obviously weather conditions were a factor.”
Colin Hall, 60, who lives near the scene, said: “It was raining so hard and there was so much water on the road. When I saw the wreckage it was horrendous, no-one could have survived it.
"It looked like the car had hit one side of the road and then just shot through the front wall of the garden. The car was torn apart.”
Friends visited the scene to pay tribute to the dead boys and lay flowers.
Raheen Karin, 16, said: “They will never be forgotten.”
Adnaan Khan, also 16, said: “Hasni was just caring and loving. He was always smiling and showed his love. He would always give you a hug whenever you saw him. I can’t believe it.”
The fatalities came as intense weather conditions in Wales and southern England led to flooding and heavy seas.
A supply craft from a North Sea oil rig ran aground at Britain’s most easterly point on Friday night as the gales took hold.
Three men were rescued unhurt from the vessel by the local lifeboat after the craft became stuck on a disused jetty at Ness Point, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, an RNLI spokeswoman said. The damaged vessel became grounded on rocks after being abandoned but was later salvaged, she added.
On Saturday, the town was battered by a freak tornado which toppled a tree onto a car, trapping a woman motorist inside.
Noel Johnson, who witnessed the “twister”, said it lasted about 30 seconds.
“It suddenly went all dark and started to rain heavily. You could see the wind, it looked like a drill, swirling around. It was very frightening,” he added.
“I suddenly heard a bang and went outside and saw that a large tree had fallen on the car.”
The woman was freed from the car by firecrews and treated at hospital for minor injuries.
Police officers also reported damage to a number of houses and the tornado tore roof tiles and brickwork from the town’s Crown Hotel.
A second tornado was reported in Benfleet, Essex, which damaged 60 homes and a number of vehicles.
At Newhaven, in East Sussex, the impact of heavy seas saw dramatic waves tower over the harbour lighthouse.
The lighthouse at The Needles on the westernmost point of the Isle of Wight reported gusts of between 95mph and 100mph.
Trees and power lines were brought down in Somerset, a roof was blown off a property at Whipton in Devon, and in Dorset five people, including a pregnant woman and two small children, fled their car when it was enveloped by floodwater at Whitchurch Canonicorum, near Bridport.
In Wales, Pembrokeshire was the hardest hit with widespread flooding of the county’s road network leading to motorists becoming stranded in their vehicles. Unusually for November, there was thunder and lightning inland as far as London, although the Lord Mayor’s Show and other events continued despite the conditions.
All cross-Channel ferries from Dover were halted and the port closed on Saturday afternoon due to conditions, while Plymouth-Roscoff and Poole-Cherbourg sailings were also cancelled.
The rain and winds were forecast to ease by Sunday, but this week is expected to bring further heavy rainfall in parts.
UK facing 'worst storm of year'
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