A DISEASE which has devastated ash trees in Europe has been found in the UK countryside, the Forestry Commission has confirmed.
Ash dieback has been discovered in East Anglia, increasing fears it could wreak the same kind of damage as Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.
The Chalara fraxinea fungus, which causes leaf loss and can lead to tree death, has wiped out 90 per cent of ash trees in Denmark in seven years and is becoming widespread throughout central Europe.