Moment dog walker and her pet cockapoo miraculously miss being crushed to death by falling tree

By LETTICE BROMOVSKY, NEWS REPORTER Published: 10:52, 31 May 2026 | Updated: 10:55, 31 May 2026 A dog walker had a miraculous escape after a massive tree branch came crashing down just seconds after she walked beneath it in a dramatic near-miss captured on CCTV. Yuan Zhang, 40, had been walking her dog near a cemetery in Bath, Somerset, when the frightening incident unfolded on May 26. Footage from security cameras at the New Crown Inn shows the enormous branch suddenly breaking away from the tree and crashing onto the road moments after Ms Zhang passed by with her pet. The shocked dog walker said she sensed something was wrong with the tree just before the branch fell. Ms Zhang said: 'I didn't expect that such a big branch was going to fall. I just turned to the left side because I noticed that the tree might have a problem. It just fell immediately. 'My dog got really scared - she totally freaked out.' She revealed that she had almost forgotten about the incident until friends contacted her after seeing the CCTV footage. She added: 'I saw the video and my friends were like 'are you ok?' It seems like the branch is super close to me but I still had one metre of space.' Yuan Zhang, 40, had been walking her dog near a cemetery in Bath, Somerset, when the frightening incident unfolded on May 26 A dog walker had a miraculous escape after a massive tree branch came crashing down just seconds after she walked beneath it Pub landlady Charlotte Symonds described the terrifying moment the branch came down. She said: 'The noise was horrendous. My partner was in the porchway of the pub and he could see that no one was underneath the tree but saw this near miss - it was very close to hitting her. 'An ambulance came and we were directing the traffic so there were no accidents. Then the police came and they managed to keep one side of the road open.' Emergency services attended the scene while traffic was managed around the fallen branch. Local officials later confirmed that an inspection had been carried out after the incident. Councillor Manda Rigby, Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) cabinet member for communications and community, added: 'We're very relieved no-one was harmed. 'Our tree team was on site within an hour. They found signs of structural weakness within the branch that would not have been visible when the tree was inspected last June and was found to be in good health.' The council said the hidden weakness would not have been detected during the tree's previous inspection, which had concluded that it was healthy. Fortunately, despite the terrifying close call, neither Ms Zhang nor her dog suffered any injuries. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.