A FAMILY narrowly escaped injury when a tree fell on their car as they were leaving County Hall car park in Dorchester.

Miguel Allard from Gillingham, who was in the county town on business, said he was just leaving the car park onto The Grove when the tree came crashing down on the bonnet of his car.

He said: "We heard this horrible cracking noise and looked up to see the tree coming down.

"The whole top half of the tree landed on the front of the car.

"It was very frightening - quite a shock, but luckily no one was hurt."

Mr Allard said the tree, which had been more than 10 metres tall, appeared to have snapped around halfway up in the strong wind.

He said: "I have never had to claim against a tree before, but there's a first time for everything."

The top half of the tree, on The Grove, fell across the car park exit, which is currently one way because of work going being done to shore up the town's Roman wall.

A spokesman for Dorset County Council said Dorset Works were called to remove the tree, and diversions were put in place along Glyde Path Road and High West Street.

Meanwhile, Dorset is bracing itself for continued strong winds and heavy rain over the weekend.

Forecasters are predicting gusts reaching up to 50mph and as much as an inch of rain on Saturday afternoon as the unsettled weather continues. A spokesman for the Met Office said Dorset could expect high winds throughout Saturday with some fairly heavy rain, especially over higher ground.