A 'DANGEROUS' 90ft tree came crashing down, smashing into a garden wall and a car.

Mum-of-five Khalida Zarif came home to find a giant sycamore tree lying on its side in her garden in Preston New Road, Blackburn.

The tree, believed to be more than 100 years old, crushed a brick wall and a car when it collapsed at around 4.30pm on Tuesday.

Just an hour earlier children had been playing beneath it.

The property developer, who bought the house eight years ago with her husband Mohammed, is now worried about a second tree that is leaning towards their home.

The couple applied for permission to fell the trees but were unsuccessful after Blackburn with Darwen Council said the pair of sycamores were under protection.

Mrs Zarif said her children do not want to live in the house because they are scared the leaning tree will crush them.

She said: "I have barely slept since the tree came down.

"We have repeatedly tried to get permission from the council to fell the trees but we've been told we cannot do it.

"The tree was leaning so heavily to one side before it came down and now look at it.

"It would have crushed my children if they had stayed outside for an extra hour, it's unthinkable what could have happened.

"We thought they were dangerous.

"We've poured thousands into this house over the past eight years to make it perfect and now my children are scared to move in.

"Tree surgeons said they needed to come down, but the council didn't listen to them."

Trees can be protected from felling with a preservation order, which are given out by a council to protect specific plants in the interest of amenity.

Cutting, topping, uprooting and wilful damage to protected trees can see fines of up to £20,000 in the magistrates court and an unlimited fine in the crown court.

Sycamore trees can grow up to 115ft and live up to 400 years.

Mr Zarif said he feared the second tree could fall over 'any day now'.

He said: "In the last two weeks the wall behind the tree has cracked, it is definitely moving.

"It will go straight through the room in front of it and the council will not let us get rid of it.

"We have been trying to do this for years and we said the trees would fall down, now we've got one lying on its side in our garden.

"The weather was not poor either, it was a nice day on Tuesday with no wind, so it's scary the trees can just come down without any real force."

Cutting roots is also seen as prohibited activity and permission must be granted from an authority to trim or remove them.

Those with trees on their land are responsible for maintaining them, however there are no statutory standard this should be kept to.

Cllr Hussain Akhtar, who represents the area, said: "I thank God no one was injured or killed from the tree when it hit the ground.

"We do not know how the tree came down.

"The council will work with the couple to get the situation resolved.

"The council wants to look after its trees and its people."

Sycamore trees are non-native to the UK and were introduced in the Middle Ages.

A council spokesman said: "Officers would be meeting with the family today to investigate what has happened and the state of the tree.

"The trees had previously been examined prior to construction works by the council’s arboricultural team as well as independent specialists."