Woman almost crushed by tree while walking dog

By Filipa Gaspar

A dog walker had a lucky escape after she narrowly avoided being crushed by a falling tree in a near-miss caught on CCTV.

Yuan Zhang, 40, was just leaving a cemetery in Bath in Somerset when she and her pet had a near miss.

The incident was caught on CCTV cameras belonging to the New Crown Inn.

Zhang said: "I didn't expect that such a big branch was going to fall.

"I just turned to the left side because I noticed that the tree might have a problem. It just felt immediately.

"My dog got really scared – she totally freaked out. "

She explained that she had forgotten about the incident until she received a message from her friends with CCTV.

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She added: "I saw the video and my friends were like 'are you ok?'

"It seems like the branch is super close to me but I still had one meter of space."

Landlady Charlotte Symonds said: "The noise was horrendous.

"My partner was in the porchway of the pub and he could see that no one was underneath the tree but saw this near miss - it was very close of hitting her.

"An ambulance came and we were directing the traffic so there was no accidents.

"Then the police came and they managed to keep one side of the road open."

Councillor Manda Rigby, Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) cabinet member for communications and community, added: "We're very relieved no-one was harmed.

"Our tree team was on site within an hour.

"They found signs of structural weakness within the branch that would not have been visible when the tree was inspected last June and was found to be in good health."

It happened on May 26.