A man has spoken of his shock after a tree fell on three cars parked outside his Rickmansworth home.

The tree collapsed in The Drive on Saturday evening, shortly after Mandesh Patel and his family returned from a shopping trip.

His two-year-old Audi A3 and cars belonging to his daughter and brother in law, remain underneath the tree, which is too large to remove without specialist equipment.

Mr Patel said: "We'd only been home 20 minutes after going to the shops, and we were having a nice cup of tea and heard a massive 'whoosh'.

"We came outside and saw the tree had fallen down on the cars. My brother-in-law was visiting for the day. I expect he won't come again."

Mr Patel's car has damage to the door and roof. The back windscreen and roof of his 22-year-old daughter's car has been damaged, as has the bonnet, wing and windscreen of his brother in law's car.

Having gathered a few quotes from companies offering to remove the tree, which fell from his neighbour's property, Mr Patel expects the operation to cost £300.

The commercial director said: "It's taken half the hedge with it, including two of my topiary swans which my gardener made.

"My neighbour is on holiday so I can't get the details of his home insurance, and the three cars are all insured with different companies "I'm worried the insurance companies will hide behind the 'act of god' clause and I'll lose my no claims bonus, and have to pay about a thousand pounds worth of excess."

Three Rivers District Council sent an inspector to look at the tree this week, and found it was not diseased or damaged before it fell.

Only five years ago, a tree planted just metres away from the one that fell on Saturday, came down smashing into two doors leading into the house and garage.

Mr Patel said the landscaped gardens and tall trees were one of the things that persuaded him to move to the street in 1996.

He added: "In the autumn it looks absolutely fantastic, but now it makes me nervous about the other three trees on my property."