Man killed and woman injured by neighbour's falling chimney

A man was killed and a woman injured when their next-door neighbour’s chimney collapsed during stormy weather and smashed through their roof while they were sleeping.

The death early on Sunday morning was the third since Thursday amid strong winds in the wake of Storm Ellen. A child was killed and another was seriously injured by a falling tree in the Kent village of Bobbing on Friday, while a man died after getting into difficulty in the sea off the Cornish coast in rough conditions on Thursday.

In the latest incident, the 47-year-old man suffered fatal injuries when the chimney fell into the bedroom of his home in the Great Horton area of Bradford, at about 5.06am on Sunday.

His 28-year-old partner is being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, West Yorkshire police said.

A family from the neighbouring house, including three children, were taken from their property unharmed.

Paul Wright, 30, from nearby Southfield Lane, said he heard the woman who was injured screaming after being woken up by the noise of the roof collapsing.

He said: “At about half past four this morning I heard a big, loud bang, like an explosion. I came out with my partner to see what had gone on and noticed one of the neighbour’s roofs had collapsed and then noticed all the emergency services come.

“It’s a big tragedy to all the neighbours, what’s gone on, it’s just a big shock to everybody. They were lovely people, quiet, kept themselves to themselves.”

Wright added: “It took them the best part of an hour, over an hour, to get her out the house, which is understandable with all the roof that’s collapsed. They had to take the full window out to carry her out.”

The couple are understood to live in a single storey property on the short cul-de-sac and the chimney fell from an adjoining two-storey home.

Building control surveyors were at the house on Sunday and workers from a building and maintenance company were seen boarding up the windows and doors of the property.

Debris could be seen on the roof of the single-storey building and there was a large hole in the roof of the house next door.

Yorkshire ambulance service said they had attended the scene and taken one patient to Leeds general infirmary.

The Met Office had issued a yellow weather warning of wind for all of England, Wales and parts of Scotland on Friday with winds of up to 50mph predicted for inland areas, reaching up to 60mph around coasts and hills.

Kent police said in a statement on Sunday that they were called at 12.17pm on Friday after a report that two children had been injured by a falling tree near Parsonage Lane in Bobbing, a village close to Sittingbourne.

The force said officers attended alongside ambulance crews, the air ambulance and firefighters. One child was declared dead at the scene and the other was airlifted to a London hospital with serious injuries, it said.

Kent fire and rescue service issued a warning on Friday for people to take care because of high winds. Kent police said they were preparing a report for the coroner.

Devon and Cornwall police said a holidaymaker, who was in his 50s and from the London area, was pulled from the water near Helston on Thursday afternoon but was confirmed dead shortly afterwards. The man died after getting into difficulty in the sea off the Cornish coast in rough conditions after Storm Ellen.