Passengers travelling with Avanti West Coast faced disruption on Thursday after a tree falling on the overhead wires resulted in some lines being blocked.

Services departing from London Euston were scheduled to have extended journey times as they are diverted via the Midlands as a result of the incident, which occurred between Rugby and Lichfield Trent Valley.

Meanwhile, a “localised tornado” is believed to have caused “significant damage” to homes in the Greater Manchester area. 

“Numerous reports” were made to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at around 11.45pm on Wednesday, and the force declared a major incident due to the “severity” of the damage caused and the potential risk to public safety.

READ MORE: Long queues at Glasgow station amid rail disruption

No injuries were reported but many residents were forced to leave their homes.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said that as of 11am on Thursday, supplies had been restored to some 34,000 customers, with around 7,700 left without power.

Director of corporate affairs Graeme Keddie told BBC Radio Scotland many of those properties are in north-east Scotland and Shetland.

“One of the main impacts we’ve seen is around access to faults, so blocked roads, flooding in fields, and issues with snow,” he said.

“We’re very hopeful that that will ease today but that has meant our teams on the ground have been saying that (in) the time it would take to fix two or three faults they have only been able to fix one, but we are hopeful of further progress today as weather conditions have eased.”

He added that power may not be restored for some customers until Friday, particularly those who live in heavily affected or rural areas.