A MINI tornado hit Darwen, uprooting a tree and sending wheelie-bins flying.

Firefighters in the town witnessed the freak Weather conditions last night, which made a tree behind their station topple over.

Officers said strong wind was followed by hail, making the station windows rattle.

Leading firefighter Phil Mayers said: "It was calm one minute, dark the next and then windows started rattling and things were thrown about outside. The wind even uprooted a tree behind the station.

"It only lasted about half a minute. The lads said they've never seen anything like it before."

Sub officer Phil Whittaker added: "It suddenly went really black and there were loads of hail stones and then all the windows were shaking. It was quite frightening at the time."

Colin Donnelly from the Manchester Weather Centre said the summer conditions were perfect for the mini tornado although there had been no other reports.

He said: "There was a sharp line of rain and thundery activity across East Lancashire. Tornados are associated with quick changes. One minute it is there and the next minute it's gone.

"There was definitely a probability rather than a possibility there was a tornado. The officers have described classic events that happen when one strikes." He said they only receive about 50 reports of tornados every year as they often go unnoticed.