A Birmingham Post journalist has told of her terror at being caught up in the tornado that swept through the city on Thursday.

Sub-editor Jo Travis saw her home and car damaged by the extreme weather, with winds reaching up to 130mph, and says she feared for her safety.

Having left her Moseley flat in a hurry at around 2.45pm on Thursday, she returned seconds later to find the roof over her kitchen had caved in and her washing machine, oven, floor tiles and sink had turned to rubble.

She said: “I felt numb. I didn’t know where to go and I felt very vulnerable. Mine was the worst-hit home in the street. It was just completely out of the blue.”

Jo was already in shock because a tree had battered her car as she had tried to drive it down the road.

She said: “The storm was hammering the car from the passenger’s side and then from the driver’s side. It was shaking. I thought the window was going to come in and that I was going to be seriously hurt.

“Then a branch hit the driver’s side and did smash the window. A tree had fallen on my car and dented the roof. It had all happened in a matter of seconds.

“I sat in the car terrified, not knowing whether I was safer inside or out.”

Post photographer Neil Pugh also witnessed the tornado.

While driving home he saw a swirling black cloud and quickly pulled his car over to grab his camera from the boot.

His image wiped out the Post’s front page on Friday, and the first nine pages were also cleared to include more pictures and first-hand accounts of the damage.

Neil said: “A swirling black cloud crossed the carriageway. It was down for about 15 seconds, then lifted before it hit Hopwood Services on the M42, throwing stuff around. The clouds were massive and dark green. It was a spectacular sight.”

Meanwhile at the Birmingham Evening Mail, its Late Night Final edition was on its way to print when news of the tornado broke, and editor Steve Dyson made the decision to literally ‘hold the front page’.

With the help of photographer Darren Quinton, who was out covering a diary job for the Sunday Mercury when the tornado struck, the Mail was able to carry the first pictures and reports of the devastation on its front page with further reports on page three.

A team of reporters and photographers were also sent out to gather copy and pictures for a tornado-packed edition on Friday.

And 10,000 extra copies of the paper were printed on Saturday with an eight-page Tornado Special pull-out.

Steve said: “The whole team did a tremendous job. The fact that the Mercury offered us their pictures shows just how we can all work together when a big story breaks.”