A family were left stunned after a tornado ripped through their house.

The freak storm which lasted only 30 seconds left a trail of destruction in its wake.

The tiny tornado struck last Thursday at the home of Bruce and Nicola Jamieson in Kilcreggan.

Nicola was at home with their five children when the tornado hit - slamming open the front door, sweeping through the house and tearing the back door from its hinges.

And Bruce, who was out playing football when the wind picked out the family home for its destructive attack, was utterly amazed by the devastation when he came home.

Nicola told the Advertiser the first hint of trouble came when a hailstorm struck. Then the wind got up and there was a loud bang as the front door was blasted open and the back door ripped off.

Nicola said: 'It was utterly unbelievable.

'I was standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden it got really, really dark. The hail which looked like snow on the Velux window.

'Then there was a huge bang and a scream from one of the kids who shouted "a tornado has just gone past the window" and then there was another bang as the front door blew open and the back door was blown off its hinges.' She continued: 'It was all over in about 30 seconds but the devastation was unbelievable.' The tornado also bent the flagpole in the front garden of the house, Osborne, on Shore Road, and ripped the hedge to pieces, leaving a large section blocking the neighbour"s driveway.

The roofbox was ripped off the family car and thrown over the house into the back garden, the family"s fibreglass boat which normally takes three people to move was flung across the garden and into the hedge. Guttering was ripped off the house, and the hallway of the house was full of debris from the beach across the road.

A heavy Victorian boot scraper, one of two, vanished completely but the other was left. The top of the compost bin disappeared as did the top section of a Little Tykes chute but strangely a tiny little BBQ was untouched.

Nicola said: 'It was totally bizarre. It took about 30 seconds from start to finish and then suddenly there was complete silence and the birds started singing.' She continued: 'When Bruce came home he was amazed. He came up the driveway just shaking his head as if I had done it!' The family have since had the tornado validated by the Met Office and are now waiting for an insurance assessor to come and see for himself the effect of the 30 second twister.