A TORNADO ripped through countryside near Bicester uprooting trees, blowing off roofs and lifting a stable block over a hedge.

The funnel cloud, believed to have measured about 50ft across, flattened a half-mile swathe of countryside between Godington and Poundon in one of the weekend's extreme storms.

And it's not the first time the area has experienced such a storm - as residents say the village was struck by another tornado-like storm in July.

Farmer Julian Price, of nearby Poundon, saw the tornado while driving his tractor and caught the funnel cloud on his mobile phone.

He said: "It was a bit strange. I thought I must have been seeing things - it's not the sort of thing you expect to see. It was a bit of a shock really.

"It's like tornado alley, isn't it? I have seen a lot things when driving my tractor but not one of them. Not many people get to see these tornados so to see one and get a picture of it was quite nice."

Landowner Rory Gilsenan said the storm damaged several of outbuildings in his field.

He said: "We had some barns and an old dairy parlour and it absolutely levelled them. It picked up a big field shelter - a stable for the horses - carried it 50 yards and jumped a hedge and river and landed in a field on the other side. The devastation has just flattened the barns."

Mr Gilsenan said one of the damaged barns was built of brick, one of wood, and the shelter which was lifted into the air was made of metal, wood and corrugated iron.

He said: "Corrugated iron from the roof landed half a mile away."

Mr Gilsenan added the tornado, which also uprooted four trees, came just after a severe thunderstorm on Friday lunchtime.

He said: "Luckily we got soaked and went home to change or we would have been stood in one of the barns. When we came back about 5pm the place was flat. It's unbelievable - like something you would see on one of those video programmes from America."

Villager Heather Taylor, of Moat Farm, Godington, said: "You need to see it to quite believe it. It's just lifted up a stable and thrown it 20 or 30 yards over a very high hedge. It's demolished old buildings.

"A big metal container was thrown over some conifer trees. It was like a giant hand picking up trees and twisting them.

"Had it been that little bit further along it would have taken the roofs off people's houses. It went straight between two houses, they were so lucky."

She added: "The horses, thankfully, were just further over. They had been in the building about half an hour before. Probably they would not have survived."

Mrs Taylor said she remembered the storm in July, which ripped up trees and flattened crops.

She said: "That came through a similar area. This time it came through with such force - a hurricane force - but taking more or less the same course. It's quite an exciting phenomenon but we are hoping it's the last one."