I was woken up at 6am this morning by the explosion at Hemel which scared the life out of me - for some reason I thought my flat was collapsing. I lay there, still shaken, thinking it was a clap of thunder and wondering why it had scared me so much. I heard the two further explosions which definitely sounded like thunder, and returned to sleep.

I took a photo of the smoke from St Albans Abbey this morning. I could see jets of flames shooting up, too. In the evening the flames could be clearly seen glowing in the darkness.