PART of a terraced house crashed to the ground as high winds and rain battered the area today.

The gable end wall at the junction of Jauncey Street and Oriel Street, Deane, collapsed during the early hours scattering a huge pile of bricks across the pavement and out into the road below.

Luckily the street was quiet at the time and because the house is unoccupied there was no car parked in the road below.

One shocked neighbour said: "I heard a big bang sometime in the early hours, but I thought it must have been a big firework and didn't think anything of it.

"Then when I saw it this morning I couldn't believe it. It's a good job no one was walking past and no one had parked right outside. That would have been really nasty."

Police vans blocked off Oriel Street and other local side streets off Deane Road during the morning rush hour. The AA said it was the worst incident in Greater Manchester for traffic because branches and other debris elsewhere had been easily cleared before the rush hour.

Workmen using a JCB were called to clear away the pile of debris from the road during the morning.

Elsewhere a power cable was hit by the storm, cutting off supplies to 1,271 homes. Parts of Tottington, Ainsworth and Affetside were blacked out from 5.20am.

It is thought that a branch fell on to the overhead line from the Stitch-mi-Lane sub-station in Harwood.

Workmen were able to restore the supply to the majority of the affected properties within the hour. However, a further 20 were left without electricity for several hours as the engineers sought to locate the problem.

Weathermen warn of more high winds tonight.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.