THESE dramatic pictures capture the moments when a toddler's push chair was snatched from her mother's hands and catapulted into the air.

Passers-by rushed to help the young girl, thought to be about two years old, after she was tossed across the ground by a gust in Duncombe Place, York.

The youngster was one of the victims of gales which brought havoc to York, North and East Yorkshire today as the regions were lashed by gusts of up to nearly 90 mph.

First aid staff at the nearby Dean Court Hotel helped clean up the youngster who suffered a bloody nose, and reassured her worried mother.

Hotel manager David Brooks said his trained staff were on hand to help the family, who left 15 minutes after the accident at 10am.

He said: "The mum was in more of a state than the daughter. There was a lot of blood on the girl's face, but it looked a lot worse than it was."

The landmark tourist spot, in front of York Minster's west door, is known by many residents as "windy corner" and is a notorious wind tunnel.

Elswehere, motorists driving on the A59, A64 and A19 were facing a drivers' nightmare as they battled through the blasts.

Villages were cut off, homes were without power and trees were blocking roads throughout the county as the gales reached their peak at 8am today.

Emergency services were struggling to cope with the volume of accidents and wind damage.

GNER passengers were advised to postpone their journeys after the gales brought down power lines at East Cowton on the East Coast Main Line.

Visitors to the GNER website were informed: "High winds and overhead line problems are causing severe disruption to our GNER services today. We advise you not to travel today if your journey can be postponed."

GNER spokesman John Gelson said: "Services in and out of York Station are disrupted and our ticket sales staff are not selling tickets for travel today."

Residents in Sutton-on-the-Forest were among thousands in the region who woke to find they had no electricity.

Householder Richard Kilner said a tree fall caused their power cut: "The main road into the village is completely blocked by a huge tree which has come down right across the street," he said.

"Cars are having to turn around when they get to it - there's absolutely no way anyone can get past it."

Meanwhile, there were reports of the road into Flawith, between Helperby and Tollerton, being blocked by a fallen tree. Two fallen trees were partially blocking roads in Tollerton.

At Easingwold, newsagent Mark Green said two roads which were blocked overnight by fallen trees and branches - Stillington Road and part of the A19 at the junction with York Road - had been cleared this morning.

"There were a few big branches across the A19, but these have all been moved away now," said Mr Green, who works at GE & E Towler & Son Ltd.

The A163 was blocked for an hour after the wind brought down a tree between the A19 and North Duffield.

In all, Northern Electric Distribution (NEDL) reported 32,000 customers had been affected by power cuts overnight, in an area stretching from North Lincolnshire to the Scottish Borders.

An NEDL spokeswoman said: "We have mobilised 400 members of staff to restore electricity supplies after a night of widespread disruption across the whole region due to the severe, gale force winds and heavy rains."

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said the service had been kept frantically busy all night, attending scenes of blown-over trees and vehicles across the county.

"The main areas overnight have been in the centre of the county, around Thirsk, Northallerton and Bedale, with trees falling on to roads and property and vehicles blowing over in the severe winds. Both the A19 and A1 have seen lots of incidents of vehicles being blown over," she said.

Sergeant Rick Hall, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "Usually, we are pretty quiet first thing in the morning, but today we've been inundated with people calling in to report fallen trees and telegraph poles.

"We are working in conjunction with the Highways Agency, BT and other services to get these obstructions cleared as quickly as possible."

Sgt Hall said he was unable to go into detail about the particular roads which were closed, because there were about twenty calls waiting to be answered.

"It's gone bonkers this morning. We are taking so many calls," he said.

Forecasters predict the winds will ease later today and the heavy rains will turn into squally showers.

Updated: 12:01 Saturday, January 08, 2005