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© London Evening StandardOnslaught: the video shows people nearly swept off their feet in central London.
This is the dramatic moment Londoners were nearly thrown off their feet by violent storms battering the capital.

Strong winds whipped up water from the Thames lashing shoppers and forcing pedestrians to flee for cover in the face of the 55mph onslaught.

Virginia Elizabeth, visiting the capital from Canada, posted dramatic footage of the storms on Instagram.

She said: "A friend and I were casually strolling home along London bridge and bumped into the storm of the century."

Despite looking like a tornado, the Met office said it did not quite qualify with the swirling winds not being quite strong enough.

The capital is braced for further thunderstorms and possible flooding after numerous alerts were issued for London and the south east.

The Environmental Agency has issued 75 flood alerts and two flood warnings with temperatures due to plummet later this week.

Tuesday will bring some icy patches as well as showers and thunderstorms interrupted by sunshine with a maximum temperature of 7C.
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© London Evening StandardFlooding: a humanitarian boat helps ferry locals from Langport to Muchelney in Somerset.
By Wednesday, cold air from Eastern Europe will move over London causing the temperature to drop to between 4 and 5 degrees but forecasters warn it will feel much colder.
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© London Evening Standard'Major incident': a man drives his vintage tractor through flood water in the village of Thorney.
More than 10,000 homes nationwide had no power after reports of mini-tornadoes uprooted lampposts and pulled trees up by their roots over the weekend.

At Kew Gardens, visitors were almost swept away as gale force winds of up to 55mph were recorded.