A father is counting himself lucky after a 60ft beech tree crashed through the roof of his bungalow, just minutes after he advised his teenage daughter that it would be safer to stay at home.

Paul Hook said: “We told my daughter Tash not to go to university yesterday morning because the winds might make it too dangerous.

“She was sat at the computer in her bedroom and there was a massive gust of wind then suddenly there was this massive tree coming towards her bedroom.

“It landed on the roof right above her.”

Mr Hook, of Wainwright Way, on the Grange Farm Estate, Kesgrave, estimates the tree, which was protected by a tree preservation order, was between 60ft and 70ft tall.

“It crashed through to the loft at one point, my daughter was really quite traumatised.

“She probably would have been safer at uni.”

Tree surgeons were called and the tree and debris have now been removed from the garden.

Mr Hook, who has two children, Tash, 19, and Daniel, 15, added: “Apart form the smashed fence, you would never know anything had happened in the garden.”

A tree behind the Hook’s purpose-built disabled bungalow also came down, crashing into a neighbours garden and causing damage to both the house and garage.

“There must have been a strong gust that whipped through like a funnel because the tree was perfectly healthy and the ones either side of it are still standing.”