CHILDREN suffered bruising and were left in shock after a freak hailstorm destroyed part of the roof at Brymor Ice Cream, near Masham.
A visitor to Brymor ice cream, Viki Lake, said: "Myself and a friend had four children with us including my friend's four-week-old baby.
"We took shelter from the rain in the children's play barn then it suddenly got worse with the hail.
"The hail was that big and forceful it was shattering the plastic roof above us so we had to run to the main building.
"It was very scary and we all have minor injuries from it."
Managing director Paul Hodgson said golf ball-sized hailstones rained down on the play barn and ice cream parlour, destroying a plastic conservatory roof and skylights and leaving holes in other parts of the roof.
The car park was under six inches of water as it turned into a river of ice, as dramatic footage shows.
He said: “Hailstones, the like of which I have never seen before, started coming down at about 3.30pm.
“We had a huge rain dump and then these massive hailstones.
The skylights in the roof were shot out, the conservatory roof was damaged. It looks like a machine gun has blasted through them.
“We had members of the public here and the noise and damage was quite frightening for them.”
He said some people, including children, received minor bruising from falling bits of roof but that no one needed hospital treatment.
But staff had dealt with the situation well and had worked into the night to ensure the ice cream parlour could open as normal today.
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