German market traders were forced to batten down the hatches and close their stalls in the face of lashing winds and stormy weather.

The traditional Christmas market set up in Kingston’s historic market place shut on Thursday, December 8, after fears severe weather could be dangerous for shoppers and traders.

Town centre managers Kingstonfirst rented out the trading space to GB Events Group, which runs the German-style market, for the festive period.

GB Events’ technical support manager Rafael Mattpa said: “We closed last Thursday because of the really strong winds. There is always the danger things will fly away and hit someone.

“We had the weather warning two days before but we wanted to see how bad it was [before deciding to close] and during the course of the day we decided it was too dangerous and shut.”

Despite further weather warnings and forecasted winds of up to 70mph expected to batter the UK, the market organiser was hopeful the attraction would stay open until Wednesday, December 28, as planned.

Mr Mattpa said: “We think it will just be rain this week so hopefully it will be open as normal.”

A Kingstonfirst spokesman said it was the responsibility of the events group to decide if and when they opened.

The market has returned to Kingston for the seventh year running and when running normally it is open from 10am to 8pm.