Violent storms across Oxfordshire left at least four homes burning after being struck by lightning last night, write Andrew Ffrench and Rebecca Smith.

Roofs were set on fire as the huge electrical storm hit houses in Meadow View Road, Kennington, and Orchard Road, Buckland. No-one was hurt.

In Kennington, a family of five were out when their home was struck. Flames leaped 15 feet into the air, badly damaging the roof.

Near neighbour Emma Woodley, 20, said: "We could see the lightning and we heard this big bang. It was really loud, but we didn't think anything of it until somebody knocked at the door and we were told to get out." Fire crews from Bampton, Faringdon, Wantage and Abingdon tackled a fire in the roof of two semi-detached cottages in Buckland.

In all, firefighters were called to more than 80 incidents during the evening, many of them the result of flooding that followed the downpour.

A spokesman said: "We were incredibly busy tackling flooding, fire alarms and lightning strikes.

"The rain came down so quickly that it created a large number of flooding incidents. "All the operational resources of the brigade were needed to deal with the spate of calls caused by the extreme weather conditions."

Ambulance control operators at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford had to work without computers for 30 minutes after lightning struck their 140ft radio mast.

Spokesman Dave Hogg said: "The phones were still working, so it was just a case of putting pen to paper."

A Southern Electric spokesman said: "There were a number of power cuts but they lasted only a few seconds."

Story date: Thursday 20 May

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