RESIDENTS are calling for a public inquiry after the second massive landslide to hit a Monmouthshire village in six months.

Terrified villagers in Tintern were faced with a surge of uprooted trees and several tonnes of earth which slid down a bank and blocked the main A466 road yesterday.

The incident happened 50 metres from the Moon and Sixpence pub at 11am, following eight hours of solid rainfall overnight and throughout the morning.

Officers from Monmouthshire council and the Forestry Commission brought in diggers to clear the road, but police said it would not reopen until tomorrow.

No one was injured in the incident, caused by a massive run-off of rainwater from a steep valley from the direction of Catbrook. However, it was the second of its kind suffered by villagers in six months, after several trees were uprooted and blocked the main road in June last year.

Dave Rogers, 67, a retired artist, who is staying in a holiday home in Tintern, said: "I was reversing out of the drive just down the road and I heard a dustbin come crashing across the road, then huge lumps of trees and mud suddenly shot across the road."

Lesley Scott, who lives metres away from the scene of the accident, said: "It was a wonder no one was killed - any pedestrians or cyclists could easily have died. We're all getting fed up with this now. It's going to affect house prices in the area for certain."

David Davies MP backed residents' calls for an independent inquiry into the issue.

He said the Forestry Commission had been carrying out remedial work in the last six months to prevent this from happening again.

Sergeant Granville Waters of Chepstow Police said diversions were in place as the A466, which is the main link between Monmouth and Chepstow, was closed in both directions.