A MINI tornado struck in March yesterday (Thursday), and residents were quick to grab their cameras. The black funnel followed a thunderstorm across the town at around 10.30 am and ripped across rooftops. A spokesman for the Met Office said: These pictur

A MINI tornado struck in March yesterday (Thursday), and residents were quick to grab their cameras.

The black funnel followed a thunderstorm across the town at around 10.30 am and ripped across rooftops.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: "These pictures show a funnel cloud, which is a tornadic development that doesn't make contact with the ground.

Dave Jones was out in Turves trainspotting when he saw the tornado on the horizon.

"It was a bit of a surprise but it made a change from photographing trains," he said. "It wasn't really frightening - just spectacular."

No damage was reported in Fenland but the tornado eventually lifted a portable building into the air at Baston, on Cambridgeshire's border with Lincolnshire, injuring five people including archaeology students who were taking shelter from the storm.

The Met Office spokesman added that the weather conditions were "just right" for this phenomenon to occur.