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Thousands of homes have been left without power as gale force winds hit parts of the UK.

Severe weather warnings of wind and snow are in place for Scotland, the North of England and Northern Ireland throughout Wednesday.

Northern Powergrid, which supplies power to homes in the North East and Yorkshire, said 3,000 of its customers had experienced outages as winds reached 93mph in High Bradfield, South Yorkshire.

Meanwhile, Scottish Power reported hundreds of outages.

The Forth Road Bridge, near Edinburgh, was closed in both directions at around 2am after a lorry was blown over in strong winds.

Traffic Scotland said the bridge was likely to be closed for "a considerable period" as weather conditions had prevented the use of a crane to recover the lorry.

The driver of the lorry, a 54-year-old man, was charged by police after the crash.

In Northumbria, police said trees and walls had come down overnight, while West Yorkshire Police said there had been several road closures because of fallen trees. 

A road in Newcastle city centre was closed off by police after part of a shop roof was torn off by the wind, scattering debris onto the street.

Meanwhile, Scottish ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has warned of "heavy disruptions" across its network, with some sailings cancelled for the rest of the day.

Sky News Weather Presenter Isobel Lang said the conditions were "awful for high-sided vehicles and anyone travelling over high routes."

She said: "Probably some of the heavier snow is going to be across the north and west, with 20cm of snow across high ground in Scotland."

She added that an area of "very wet weather" in southern England could turn into snow on Thursday afternoon.

The Met Office's snow warning includes parts of northwest England on Thursday, while strong winds and wintry showers are expected to hit Scotland.