A WOMAN on holiday was killed in front of her family when a section of a tree fell on her and her four-year-old grandson.

The tragedy happened as the 57-year-old walked through Corfe Castle on Thursday afternoon.

Locals reported seeing a "mini-tornado" rip through the village.

Volunteers from Swanage Railway - which had been busy with its half-term Thomas the Tank Engine events - rushed to help. They tried to free the woman and her grandson as they lay trapped under branches from the large pine close to the village's railway station.

Her devastated husband stayed by her side as a local doctor tended to the woman, who had been near the station when the freak accident occurred around 3.30pm.

The toddler was pulled free uninjured but paramedics pronounced the woman dead at the scene.

One onlooker said: "The little boy was covered in dirt and very shocked. The husband didn't want to leave his wife - it is terribly sad."

Local people described seeing a mini-tornado rip through local streets and a bolt of lightning at the time of the accident.

The villager said: "I could see branches and everything in a whirlwind coming towards me down the street."

A few minutes later the woman went outside again to remove branches from the road.

"Tree branches were down everywhere and I could see people running around - then I realised something terrible had happened."

The victim, believed to have been from Luton, Bedfordshire, was near the entrance to the Bankes Arms car park when the tree fell. She has not yet been identified.

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "Officers are trying to establish if the weather at the time contributed to the falling tree. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death."

First published: October 29