RESIDENTS were suddenly woken to a “really loud bang” during the night after a tree fell within metres from their homes.

A large tree, which was allegedly due to be chopped down by the council next week, split on White House Gardens, Southampton.

One resident said one of its thick stumps fell sideways and hit the ground at around 4am on Wednesday morning.

Children that play near the tree are now “absolutely devastated” as what they used to call “their tree” is no longer.

Sylvia Willard, who has lived on the road for 32 and a half years, said she woke up to a cracking sound.

The 58-year-old said: “It sounded like someone was throwing something at the fence, then I heard pigeons flutter their wings.

“I could hear cracking and looked out the window. That’s when I saw the tree fall and land on my son’s van. There was a really loud bang, it went straight down.”

She added that it is “unbearable” to think about what would have happened if the tree fell towards their homes.

Another resident said his daughter and her friends play on swings hanging from the tree every day.

Aaron Ravenhill said: “The council said it was dangerous two weeks ago but as soon as the tree falls they come out.

“My daughter normally plays on the swing, luckily it happened in the night as if there was a kid out there, they would be dead.”

It is believed the council arrived to clear the fallen tree at around 8.30am on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Southampton City Council said: "The trees in White House Gardens are inspected on a regular basis.

"The council manages over 54,000 trees on public land throughout the city and resources are allocated on a priority basis.

"Our Tree Officers work hard to ensure that all of city’s trees are health checked at regular intervals for limb or complete failure. It is very difficult, especially with certain types of tree, to know when they are likely to come down. It is very unfortunate that this failure has happened."