A village church suffered thousands of pounds of damage after being struck by lightning during the thunderstorm which hit South East Cornwall around 6am on Tuesday.

The 15th century St Keyne Parish Church and surrounding yard have been closed to the public for health and safety reasons after risk assessors and an architect raised concerns there could be more debris to fall.

The church is the second in the Caradon area to suffer damage from a lightning strike. A year ago St Odulph's Church at Pillaton suffered the same fate.

As at Pillaton, the lightning struck one of the four pinnacles on the church tower, bringing part of it crashing through the roof.

First to arrive at the scene at 8.30am was churchwarden Margaret Smee, after she was contacted by people living near the church.

'The first thing I saw was that the spire on top of one of the pinnacles was missing,' said Margaret. 'When I went inside I saw two large holes and two smaller ones in the north aisle roof, caused by the falling stone. There was debris everywhere.'

Mrs Smee said the church's new electrical system was also hit and the blast blew out glass panels in the door leading to the bell tower.

Western Power made the electrics safe and a local builder will do a temporary repair from to keep out the worst of the weather until the main repairs can begin. Churchwarden Paul Ward is liaising with insurers and is waiting for the damage estimate.

Priest in charge the Rev Canon Tony Ingleby explained that in 2006 the congregation celebrated the completion of large-scale restoration work on the church tower.

He said: 'We don't know how much the repairs will cost and how much will be covered by insurance but again the whole congregation and the community will be working together.'

Parish council chairman Loveday Carlyon said: 'The church is an important part of the community, whether or not you're a member of the Church of England. It's an historic landmark and part of the fabric of the village. It's a great shame this has happened after a lot of effort and fundraising has gone into repairs.'