April 1, 2011 7.35 am This story is over 155 months old

Freak fog patch damages Cathedral

Mystery: A freak patch of fog has severely damaged parts of the Lincoln Cathedral in the early hours of April 1.

A freak patch of fog has severely damaged parts of the Lincoln Cathedral in the early hours of April 1.

The mist gathered around the cathedral at around 7.20pm on Thursday, when an eyewitness was able to capture the troubling image above.

Several people in the area watched breathlessly how the cloud-like formation engulfed the cathedral and heard noises resembling a loud rumble.

Cathy Rivers (27) saw the mist approaching: “It came through very fast! It was white in color, but it got darker and louder as it approached the cathedral.

“I got scared and I rang my partner, who came to pick me up shortly after. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the area after hearing what happened now,” Rivers added.

Eyewitness Cathy Rivers managed to snap another shot of the mysterious fog.

Moments after the freak patch of fog engulfed the cathedral, squeaks and creaks could be heard from inside the mist, said Tom Warren (46).

“I was mesmerised. It was like I couldn’t take my eyes off the cathedral and I was worried at the same time, as weird noises were coming from the fog.”

Emergency services were called out to the cathedral, but they had to watch helplessly as the fog swirled around for several hours.

The fog dissipated suddenly at about 1am in the morning and initial reports say no one was hurt, but the cathedral was severely damaged.

Experts are trying to figure out exactly what happened to the cathedral.

Restoration experts are now at the cathedral and are assessing the damage, believed to be going into the millions.

Met Office spokesperson Gill Saunders told The Lincolnite the fog patch that damaged the cathedral was a ‘freak event’:

“We’ve never seen anything like this. Our weather radars picked up on a cloud formation moving in to Lincoln fast last evening, but it disappeared from our computers shortly after.

“We thought it was a freak event interfering with our systems. I never imagined it could be this bad.”

Work to repair the severely damaged cathedral has already begun.

While experts are trying to figure out exactly what happened, authorities have begun repairing the damage already and are bracing themselves for similar events in the future.

Photos: [1] [2] [3]