STORM Doris brought chaos to Bolton today, wreaking havoc as strong winds battered the borough.

More than 50 trees were brought down in gusts of up to 80mph and several buildings were also damaged.

In some parts of the UK, the wind reached speeds of almost 95mph and a woman was killed in Wolverhampton when she was hit by a piece of debris the "size of a coffee table".

The storm was also responsible for severe disruption to transport networks across the North West and massive power cuts affecting thousands of people.

In St Helens Road, Daubhill, there were three separate reports of serious storm damage to homes, as bricks and roof tiles fell from the buildings.

The home and livelihood of one devastated family has been hit after bricks blew from their house and crushed a taxi.

The bricks from the gable end were completely detached from a property opposite Shanti Medical Centre and destroyed the roof of the black cab and smashed the windows.

Police attended the scene at around 2pm and taped off the area to pedestrians while they spoke to the family and waited for building inspectors to assess the damage.

The owner of the taxi, Mushtaq Ahmed, aged 64, lived in the damaged home and said he was worried about what it meant for his family.

Mr Ahmed said: “We have been living here for about 20 years and I feel very nervous and I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“It’s our livelihood and our source of income.”

Mr Ahmed lives in the home with his wife Anayat, his sons Qasir and Ashfaq and daughter-in-law Fariah.

Romana Ahmed, Mr Ahmed’s daughter, said some of her father’s grandchildren were visiting the house at the time.

She said: “My father heard a loud bang and went outside to have a look and saw the wall had come down in the wind.

“They evacuated the building and the police said it’s deemed as unsafe so we can’t go and get our basic necessities. They think the roof could possibly collapse.

“The taxi, which is the livelihood of our family, has been crushed. I can’t even express how we feel.”

A woman had to be taken to hospital after a tree blew over and landed on her car in Lever Edge Lane, Great Lever.

The North West Ambulance Service said the woman in her 40s, who was treated at the scene, suffered arm injuries, and was in a lot of pain.

She was taken to hospital and Bolton Council workers attended the scene to clear the road.

PICTURES/ VIDEOS: Storm Doris batters Bolton

Great Lever resident Ihsaan Khan witnessed the aftermath of the incident and said he was surprised the victim was still alive.

He said: “The weather has been ridiculous. It’s horrendous. It doesn’t usually get anything like this bad around here.

“The tree is huge so I am surprised that she’s survived.”

Thousands of residents across the region experienced power outages, as the high winds caused damage to equipment.

More than 250 properties in the BL7 postcode — which covers Bromley Cross and other northern parts of the borough — were left without power from around lunchtime. Electricity North West said that it hoped to have power restored to all properties by 7pm.

In the BL8 postcode, which covers Hawkshaw and parts of Bury, almost 1,900 homes were without power at one point during the day.

Police were called out to redirect traffic after the wind blew bricks from the roof of a house.

The gable was blown off the property on the corner of Beechwood Street and Rishton Lane in Great Lever and the bricks smashed onto the pavement below.

Officers confirmed that nobody had been injured.

Also in Rishton Lane, a wall collapsed next to the junction with Parkfield Road.

Bolton Council's building control teams attended unsafe building reports in Leigh Road, Westhoughton, and Cawdor Street, Farnworth.

A cordon was also erected around part of Bolton Town Hall, near to the south entrance, after a window in the second floor legal services department was smashed in the storm.

Smithills Hall was closed early as the car park had been made inaccessible due to debris, but was expected to re-open as usual tomorrow.

Firefighters had to repair the roof of Global Interiors in Blackburn Road, Astley Bridge after gusts blew the panels from the roof.

An employee at the store said: “The roof was coming off and it nearly hit the windows.

“One of our signs has been blown away and we can’t find it anywhere. But we’re just glad that nobody has been hurt.”

Firefighters were also called when a panel was seen hanging off the roof of the Bolton Hub, in Bold Street, at around 2pm.

A collapsed tree blocked all three lanes of De Havilland Way in Horwich, after coming down at around 1pm. The busy main road was cleared by 3pm.

A council team also cleared up debris caused by a fallen tree in Park Road, Bolton, which cut through a phone line.

Other locations where trees collapsed included Moss Bank Way, Thicketford Road, Walker Fold Road, Sharples Hall Drive in Astley Bridge, Boardman Street in Halliwell, Washacre in Westhoughton, and Barrie Way in Hall i'th' Wood.

The wall of a house in Ainsworth Lane also came down in the high winds.

A Bolton Council spokesman said: "Our tree team are currently dealing with over 50 incidents of fallen trees across the borough, attending each one, making them safe and arranging their removal.

"Our building control team are currently assessing several incidents of damage to buildings and making them safe, including the town hall, where a window has been cracked.

"We are working closely with the emergency services to keep people and buildings safe and allow people to go about their daily business."

There were severe disruptions on the region's rail services. An obstruction on the line between Clifton and Bolton was among a series of problems facing train passengers.

Services between Bolton and Salford Crescent were either cancelled or delayed in the early afternoon, and Northern Rail said that Cheshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester lines had suffered the worst disruption.

Warrington Central Station was closed and several platforms were blocked at Preston station – both as a result of debris falling from roofs.

Customers were advised to avoid making rush hour journeys and delay their trips until the worst of the storm had passed.

Some flights into and out of Manchester Airport had to be either cancelled or diverted and there were also significant delays to bus and rail services to the airport.

The North West Ambulance Service said it had attended more than 10 incidents of people being injured as a result of Storm Doris.

They included a seven-year-old being hit by a sign in Manchester and an 81-year-old being blown over.

A driver described the terrifying moment a tree fell in front of his car in Prestwich.

The man, who wished not to be named, was driving along St Ann’s Road when the tree came crashing down just after noon.

He said: “The tree came down 60 seconds before I reached it. It could have easily killed someone.

“I saw it falling and luckily there were no casualties. It has only caused damage to the properties either side of the road.

“There were a couple of men checking on houses, although the owner of the house where the tree came from didn’t appear to be in."

There were also reports of fallen trees in Dumers Lane, Radcliffe, as well as in Unsworth and Ramsbottom.

Firefighters received around 150 calls and attended 60 incidents between 8am and 5pm, and at one point had to urge concerned members of the public to only call if there was an immediate danger to life.

Warren Pickstone, the fire service's head of protection, said: “We’ve received a lot of calls today and credit has to go to all our staff in ensuring we maintained a high level of service.

“Hopefully we have now seen the worst of the storm but the public should remain wary of areas that may have been damaged by the high winds, be it loose roof tiles or fallen trees that could cause injury.”

The M6 was partially shut in Cheshire after Thelwall Viaduct had to be closed due to high winds.

The viaduct, which carries the M6 over the Manchester Ship Canal, had to be shut just before noon.

It reopened by 4.30pm between junctions 20 and 21 near Warrington, though Highways England warned that there was still a particularly high risk to high-sided vehicles, caravans and motorbikes on exposed sections of the network.

The worst of the storm had passed by late afternoon, but the Met Office has issued another weather warning for the region tomorrow due to ice.

A spokesman said: "As the more persistent rain, sleet and snow clears on Thursday afternoon and evening, temperatures will fall quickly and untreated surfaces will freeze, with ice forming, especially in areas with snow cover.

"Further showers spreading from the west could cause salt wash-off and give further accumulations of snow in places, chiefly on high ground over Scotland."

A woman died in Wolverhampton city centre after suffering "very serious head injuries" when she was hit by falling concrete, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.

Coffee giant Starbucks has said in a statement that the company is "shocked and saddened by the terrible incident", which happened outside their store.

In Scotland, the M80 was closed in both directions due to snow, as well as schools shut and some ferry services cancelled.

And in Ireland almost 46,000 households woke up with no electricity after violent gusts battered large swathes of the country throughout the night.

Bolton actress Helen Flanagan posted a photo of herself wrapped up warm on the set of Coronation Street, but outside filming for the show was later shut down because of the conditions.

A spokesman for the ITV soap said filming both on location and on the cobbled studio set in Manchester would be rescheduled after worsening weather conditions made outdoor scenes impossible.