A MYSTERIOUS apparition spotted in the car park of a Worcester restaurant has captured the imagination of people across the city.

Worcester News reader Ross Withers recorded a video of what appears to be a small tornado in the car park of The Pavilion in the Park in Tybridge Street on Saturday afternoon.

In the video the strange apparition can be seen moving across the car park surrounded by curious onlookers before fizzling out at the fence with Cripplegate Park.

Ross, who lives in Lower Broadheath, said he had just gone into the bar with some friends when he heard a commotion from outside and went out to see what was happening.

“We heard screaming and went outside to see an umbrella about 60 feet in the air,” he said.

“Someone shouted ‘there’s a whirlwind’.

“It was a bit scary, really.”

He said a lot of people were recording videos of the strange occurrence.

“Quite a few people were recording it and a lot of people were trying to keep their kids away from it because it was spitting stones all over the place.

“It left a trail on the car park – it was quite powerful.”

Bar supervisor of The Pavilion Jack Fletcher was at the scene and said it was like “a massive gust of wind”.

“It was really weird – everyone was backing away from it,” he said.

“We had one of our umbrellas fly out towards the river. Luckily no one was hurt.

“I’ve seen mini tornados on the internet, but nothing like this.”

But Ian Michaelwaite from Pershore-based netweather.tv identified the mysterious formation as a dust devil.

“It was a reasonable warm day and the tarmac obviously gets fairly warm so the hot air rises,” he said.

“But there was a layer of colder air so when the hot air rose it clashed with the low pressure and creates a kind of upside-down tornado.

“As you can see in the video it stops as soon as it gets to the grass.

“It’s more often seen in fields after harvests.”

He said they are more commonly seen in rural areas of America, where they can sometimes get very large.

“It does look quite bizarre,” he said.

“Sometimes you can’t see them because there’s no dust.

“It’s very fortunate to be that close to one.”

Here's another video of the dirt devil. This one's from Olivia Hartley: