STAFF and children at a Darwen nursery are counting the cost after their own “Wizard of Oz” moment.

In just a minute on Tuesday, thousands of pounds of damage was caused to Kittens Preschool in Veronica Street, Darwen, as a mini tornado swept the area.

Staff hurried seven children out of the playground and into safety just moments before winds ripped a 8ft x 12ft polycarbonate greenhouse from its concrete base and dumped it in nearby church grounds.

Tiles from neighbouring houses and the centre itself were also dislodged and smashed into four staff members cars.

“It was very frightening for us all”, said administrator Julie Kirkby, 33.

“The greenhouse isn’t small and it was rivtetted into concrete, so to see it just take off like something out of the Wizard of Oz was bizarre.

“It flew over quite a few of St Edward’s Church buildings before crashing down. It was a crumpled mess, but could have been much worse if it had been made from glass.”

The £1,000 greenhouse is regularly used by children to grow fruit and vegetables, and contained several pumpkins at the time of the incident.

The preschool is now claiming for damage through insurers and staff hope to have a replacement before spring time.

Julie said: “When we looked at what other damage had been caused, we saw the cars had been by tiles and other flying debris. They looked just like they’d been pebble-dashed.

“We’re think we’ve got to claim on our own car insurance policies for the damage and it’s costing one girl £250 at a time she really doesn’t need it.”

Children attending the preschool were said to be shocked, but unharmed by the incident.

Nearby, 100 roof tiles from three terraced houses came off and forced the closure of Blackburn Road, as well as smashing 10 windows at the Anchor MOT and Anchor Service Station.