‘Passengers were 35 seconds from disaster’

Dozens of rail passengers cheated death by seconds when a mini-tornado destroyed a huge section of the railway station roof just seconds after a loaded train pulled out.

One woman was injured when a 400m section of roof over platform 1 and 2 at Cork’s Kent Station — a busy commuter rail platform serving Cobh and Midleton — collapsed during high winds just after 3pm.

The 3pm Cobh train, with up to 50 people on board, had pulled away just seconds before. One witness said three people on the platform fled in terror as the structure came down.