CCTV shows moment 'tornado' rips through kids soft play centre

CCTV captures the moment a mini tornado tore through a soft play centre - shattering roof lights and leaving children "traumatised".

The rare dust devil ripped several glass skylights from the ceiling of Kids Zone in Worksop, Notts., at 2.45pm on Tuesday (16/7).

Dramatic CCTV shows the twister moving through the car park causing debris to crash to the ground outside.

Further video captures water gushing into the soft play, which was open at the time, and left families with young children "upset and traumatised".

Luckily, nobody was injured and the centre is now working with insurers to assess the extent of the damage to get it repaired.

The freak weather phenomenon is caused when hot air rises rapidly through cooler air and usually occurs in arid deserts.

Owner of the centre, Graeme Murray told the BBC: "There was just this almighty freak gust of wind and it lifted our roof.

"The majority of the glass was deposited on the car park. We were open at the time and there were people in there.

"A lot were upset and traumatised, but nobody was injured.

"It was so localised - it was only us and our neighbours who sustained any damage."

After sharing the footage on social media, many residents reacted with shock.

One person commented: "That weather change happened quickly and the clouds were very dark.

"Well done to the staff for trying to manage the aftermath as it was clearly very distressing."

Another added: "Oh my goodness, you can clearly see the tornado. Hope you are all ok and no one was hurt x"

A third said: "So glad everyone got out okay, we are so sorry this has happened to you."

Dust devils are comparable to tornados in that both involve rotating columns of vertical air.

They mainly occur in desert and semi-arid areas where the ground is dry and high surface temperatures produce strong updrafts.

Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground rather than down from the clouds.

They only last a few minutes because cool air is sucked into the base of the rising vortex, cooling the ground and cutting off its heat supply.

They rarely cause injuries, but have been witnessed reaching heights up to 1,100 yards (1,000m).