PICTURES: Lightning strike brings down tree in Eye Cemetery

A lightning strike during storms across the Diss Express area in the early hours of Sunday morning has brought down part of a 70ft tree in Eye Cemetery.

Alan Cooper, chairman of the environment committee at Eye Town Council, said the fir tree is thought to have been placed in the cemetery, off Magdalen Street, shortly after it opened in the 1850s.

The cemetery was scattered with branches, leaves and bark, and the town council is now sourcing quotes to have the rest of the tree felled.

Mr Cooper told the Diss Express that, to his knowledge, none of the graves or gravestones had been damaged in the incident.

“We haven’t been able to clear all of it up because we are waiting to hear back from the tree surgeons to give us an estimate,” he said.

“But it isn’t dangerous – it is not going to fall on anybody.”

It isn’t dangerous – it isn’t going to fall on anybody

Mick Lockwood, 75, was among the first people to discover the damage.

“I have seen lightning strikes because I used to demolish trees, but I have never in my whole life seen anything like that,” he said.