FIVE men showed some real community spirit when they dragged a huge fallen branch out of a busy road.

Police closed Prittlewell Chase after wind and torrential rain sent a branch of the horse chestnut tree tumbling down on the dual carriageway, near Southend High School for Boys.

Joel Pergande, 35, of Apollo Drive, Southchurch, and his friend Jason Lea, 34, of North Avenue, Westcliff, were passing.

They decided to resolve the situation. With three other men, they pulled the tree safely to the central reservation.

Mr Pergande’s proud wife Claire, 33, watched on with her children, Claudia, seven, Jakob, four and Elodie, two.

She said: “We came out of the Southend High School for Boys’ fair and saw police had blocked the road and then we saw this enormous branch.

“The police were sitting in a car down the road, so Joel and Jakob and a few others decided to do something.

“However, three of the men couldn’t move it on their own. When another couple joined in they managed to drag it off, so cars and buses could start moving again.

“There was a real sense of community spirit about the whole thing. The children thought it was very exciting.”

Southend Council confirmed the tree had been a casualty of the ferocious downpour, at about 2.30pm on Saturday.

A spokesman said: “We had to use lifting gear to remove the branch, which we believe had become weakened by the wind. The whole tree was removed because it had become unsafe.

“The council does have a rolling programme of checking all the borough’s 20,000 trees for signs of such weakness.”