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A tornado was spotted in the skies above Ormskirk this afternoon, shocking local residents.

The twister was also spotted near Formby as it made its way down the Sefton coast

Andrew Huxley spotted the weather phenomenon above Park Pool in Ormskirk.

Andrew said: "I was just taking my little boy for a day out in Ormskirk and saw the sky changing and I got the sense that something weird was going to happen.

"We waited for about five minutes and then saw the tornado form and start to twist down, it was really strange, you just don't expect to see something like that in Ormskirk.

"It lasted for about fifteen minutes, so not that long, but it's not everyday you see a tornado in West Lancashire."

The twister was seen across the skies of Burscough and Scarisbrick Marina, shortly after 2pm.

Onlookers who witnessed the phenomenon took to social media to share their photos as the twister moved across the West Lancashire borough.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Tornadoes form when the weather is ‘unstable’ and showery. They are narrow, spinning columns of air that reach the ground from thunderstorm clouds. As they develop we often see funnel shaped clouds extending from the base of the cloud and it is only when these funnel clouds touch the ground that we get a tornado.

"On average, around 30 tornadoes are reported each year in the UK, although these are generally much weaker than their American counterparts. However, there have been a number of notable exceptions – such as the Birmingham tornado in 2005 which left a significant trail of damage."