A woman has died after she was hit by a falling tree branch while walking along a busy road yesterday evening.

The freak accident happened in the West Didsbury area of Manchester at around 7.15pm.

Police said the woman died at the scene on Barlow Moor Road, at the junction with Stanton Avenue.

A worker at a nearby petrol station who witnessed what happened told the Manchester Evening News: ‘The tree just snapped, it was a big branch and just fell. A woman was walking underneath.

‘The weather was a bit windy but not strong. A few locals came out and some of them were doctors so they were trying to help her. Then the ambulance came and police closed the road.’

Photos from the scene showed how a clump of branches almost as big as a tree itself fell across the road, blocking the carriagew

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