A TWISTER struck a Gwent town yesterday, causing thousands of pounds' worth of damage.

Shocked residents in Caldicot were alerted by crashes and bangs at about 12.30pm as the freak wind wound its way across several streets, ripping off roof tiles and damaging at least five houses.

Joan House, 67, who lives in Blackbird Road, heard the twister hit her neighbour's roof.

She said: "I heard this terrific whoop, followed by crashes and bangs, then I rushed out and saw the tiles all over the drive."

Her 80-year-old neighbour, Florence Hassell, was confronted with the damage when she returned from a shopping trip.

"I was devastated when I saw it - I couldn't imagine what had happened," she said. "I called my daughter and she rushed round with my son-in-law to clear it up for me. I've been told it will cost about £400 to fix."

Emma Bayliss, 29, came home to find that the wind had damaged the roof of her parents' house.

"It was a real shock because everybody else's houses looked fine, and there was ours with a big hole in the roof," she said.

Val Haines, of nearby Heron Road, heard the twister pass her home, damaging a neighbour's roof.

She said: "I was ironing at the time, with the window open. It was raining, and suddenly all the leaves swirled up in the air, so I closed the window.

"Then I heard all the flower pots go over, followed by a loud bang - it all happened in about a minute."

The twister continued along Caldicot bypass, smashing down a garden wall of a house in Plover Crescent before ripping more tiles off the roof of a house in Mill Lane.

Paul Adams and step-daughter Lilly Mae Ryan saw the twister on playing-fields next to Sudbrook Cricket Club. "It was drawing up the moisture from the grass, that's how you could see it, then it lifted up a panel from a fence at the bottom of the field."

The Met Office said the phenomenon is not uncommon at this time of year, particularly in damp and humid conditions.