Panic as storm starts ripping circus tent apart

Panic swept through a circus audience in Texas as the tent started to collapse above their heads as a severe storm hit.

Audience members can be heard screaming as the big top roof separates from the walls revealing flashes of lightning outside, video taken inside the tent shows.

Torrential rain can be heard beating down on the tent as water starts to stream down inside the arena at Arlington on Friday night.

Just seconds later the roof starts lifting off, as audience members grab their children to leave in a frantic rush for the door.

The fury of the storm can be seen in the final moments of the video, with lightning flashes and flooding rain filmed outside the arena.

“Well so much for having a good time at the circus,” Laura Cudagirl Solis, who posted the video on Facebook, wrote.

“The whole tent started collapsing.”

There were no reports of injuries and the tent reportedly stayed up.