AN Evening Press paper boy had a lucky escape when a huge tree was uprooted by high winds and blown on to the street where he should have been delivering.

In another incident, a large piece of masonry blew off the front of Boots The Chemists in Coney Street, York, narrowly missing a man's head.

The 16-year-old paper boy, who wished to remain anonymous, was out on his bike when he heard a loud crash and turned to discover the tree had collapsed just metres away across New Lane, in Holgate.

His mother, from Holgate, said he would normally have delivered a paper in that street at that time, but fortunately his father had done it for him earlier in the day.

"My heart leaped when he told me what happened and I just thanked God he was all right," she said.

"I'm very grateful because if he had turned round and gone down New Lane, the tree could have got him."

The incident happened at 5.15pm on Saturday, and was one of several as gales swept across Yorkshire over the weekend.

In Coney Street, firefighters sealed off an entrance at Boots after masonry crashed to the ground at 4.20pm on Saturday.

Michael Oliver, 47, from Acomb, said the masonry had missed his head "by inches" and bounced off his foot.

"I was very lucky," he said.

"People were screaming when it crashed to the floor."

A spokesman for Boots said firefighters and council officers immediately closed the shop entrance to check the damage. It was later given the all-clear. "It was an issue that we were very concerned about," the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said health and safety officers were visiting the scene today.

Meanwhile, the police and fire service said they were very busy throughout Saturday and yesterday morning, with heavy rain and winds of more than 70mph blowing down trees, damaging chimney stacks and ripping off roof tiles.

A fire service spokeswoman said there were many weather-related calls.

Among other incidents, firefighters attended Lunn Poly, in Parliament Street, York, at 4.25pm, on Saturday, to make a loose chimney stack safe.

Acomb firefighters also had to make safe a potentially-hazardous 20ft TV aerial which was left dangling over the footpath in Heslington Road. It blew off a house roof in the strong winds on Saturday afternoon.

In North and East Yorkshire, thousands of homes were left without power during the stormy weather.

A YEDL spokeswoman said: "We apologise to those customers that have suffered as a result of the damage caused to our system due to the high winds."

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for City of York Council said gritters were out in York early today as temperatures plummeted overnight.

A spokesman for PA weather centre said the risk of gales had now passed, but warned motorists to be careful as icy patches could form on the roads overnight if temperatures reach below zero.

Updated: 10:52 Monday, March 22, 2004