LARGE chunks of masonry came crashing down onto Skipton High Street when a chimney was hit by lightning on Monday morning.

Witnesses saw a blue flash before the chimney between Skipton Fashion Centre and Dollond and Aitchison exploded and chunks of masonry fell into the middle of the road.

They narrowly missed a red Astra, driven by Sarah Millington of Embsay. She said she was lucky to be alive after the incident.

"I was driving up from the Co-op car park and I saw the lightning in the sky," she said. "Then I heard the crack - it was unbelievable like a bomb going off - and I knew it had hit something.

"Then I heard a shop alarm going off and this big stone dropped in front of my car and smashed into pieces.

"I had to brake to avoid it - it was about three feet away. One second later and it would have hit my car and probably killed me. It was two to three feet wide, huge.

"I was so shocked and scared, I just kept driving. It didn't occur to me until later how lucky I was. My time was obviously not up."

Workers from local shops rushed out to clear the debris from the High Street before it caused an accident.

Emily Smith, from Craven Pharmacy, was having a coffee break at the time and saw the incident from an upstairs window.

"It was thundering and lightning, and we were just watching it when we saw a blue flash of lightening, it was very strange. We saw that it had hit the chimney and then all the stones just flew off."

Colin and Phyllis Le Marinel from Ormskirk, were in the store when the lightning struck.

"We saw a flash of lightning and then a gigantic bang and the sound of all the masonry falling down," said Mr Le Marinel.

"It is a miracle that there were no cars underneath. If there had been, the drivers would have been killed."

Visitors Sandra and Dave Stones, of Gateshead, said when they heard the noise their first thought was there had been a terrorist attack. "We thought it was an explosion, it sounded much worse than thunder," Mr Stones said.

Leading firefighter Mark Thompson told the Herald that 12 officers with three appliances had attended the incident.

"We have dealt with similar incidents before, but they are a rarity. Had it not been for the fact it was raining very heavily, and people were sheltering, it would have been very likely that someone was injured."

Police cordoned off the road and shops on Swadford Street and Caroline Square while structural engineers made the building safe. The road was reopened at 4.35pm.

Elsewhere in the town Andy Cook, owner of a taxi firm in Skipton, reported feeling the effects of the lightning twice while on the telephone and said it left him "tingling" afterwards.

A number of businesses suffered a power cut during the storm. Yorkshire Electricity Distribution Limited reported faults in the high voltage distribution network at Cowling, Skyreholme, Bolton Abbey and Beamsley after transformers were hit by lightning.

Meanwhile in Long Preston an ash tree proved that lightning can strike twice in the same place.

The tree in the corner of a field near Newton Grange Farm, was hit two months ago - and then again on Monday.

Resident Geoff Thomas said the tree had a split trunk, part of which had been damaged in the first storm, and the second half hollowed by the second lightning strike. The tree caught alight and smoke could be seen for some time afterwards.

Fellow resident Donald Wildman stood guard near the tree to protect cattle which came to have a look at the damage.