FLASH flooding hit Herefordshire and thousands of people were left without electricity during torrential storms this week.

The Ross-on-Wye and Ledbury areas were particularly badly hit by heavy rain as thousands of homes and businesses lost their power supply after a fallen tree caused problems during the early hours of yesterday (Wednesday).

The ambulance service reported difficulties coping with conditions, although there were few weather-related incidents.

"One crew reported the A44 between Worcester and Bromyard as barely passable over a four-mile section," said Murray MacGregor, a spokesman for the ambulance service.

"Other crews reported seeing water levels up to the height of car doors in Ross-on-Wye."

The police also reported difficulties with road conditions caused by heavy downpours.

"There was a lot of mud on the roads caused by the sheer volume of water," said police spokesman Neil Tipton. "Some smaller country roads were made impassable and the usual flooding points were hit."

The storms of Tuesday night and early yesterday morning followed severe weather at the end of last week.

A funnel cloud, which closely resembled a tornado, was seen heading towards Hereford last Friday during heavy storms.

And two self-proclaimed weather watchers captured the unusual image both on video and digital cameras.

Chris Simpkins was working at CBS, off Grandstand Road, when he saw the twister last Friday afternoon and managed to take pictures of the storm as it passed through Holmer.

Darryl Symonds is another weather follower and managed to capture the twister on his video camera after making a hasty retreat from a fishing trip.

"I have been into severe weather for years and it's been an ambition of mine to get something like this on film," said Darryl.

"I always have my video camera ready just in case things like this happen but it has just taken me years to do it. I was hoping it would get closer."

Darryl said the twister, viewed from his home in Bridle Road, Kings Acre, could not be accurately described as a tornado.

"You could see it in the sky - I don't think it came down to the ground," he said. "It lasted for about five minutes in the Holmer area, died away, then came back again."