Two women have been injured after a massive tree fell in Hyde Park in Sydney‘s CBD. 

Emergency services raced to the scene about 3.05pm on Friday after the tree fell onto the road at the Elizabeth Street side of the park. 

Police officers found two injured women, aged 35 and 66-years-old. 

Paramedics rushed one of the women to St Vincent’s Hospital with minor injuries.

The other woman received treatment at the scene before she was taken to the hospital as well. 

City of Sydney officials insist the trees had been inspected as part of routine public safety practices as recently as July, adding they would do so again once the weather cleared. 

The first police officers on the scene frantically combed through a sea of branches and foliage to determine if anyone had become trapped.

Emergency services said no one appeared to have been seriously injured in the incident.

The tree, on the park’s edge near St James station, appeared to have split in two before crashing across the nearby footpath.

Two people were hit by the branches and knocked to the ground while onlookers ran to their aid, according to one witness.

The man, who identified himself as Chris, said he was walking along Elizabeth Street when he heard the crack of the tree and saw it crash onto a woman.

‘There was a gust of wind and the tree has just fallen,’ he told AAP.

‘A lady was in the middle of it. If she had been a few metres back or a few metres forward it would have ended a lot worse.

‘But she walked away with a couple of scratches, so she got really lucky. It’s such a high traffic area but everyone got away, luckily.’

At least three ambulance crews were among emergency services at the scene, where police diverted traffic as the tree blocked two lanes of southbound traffic. 

Images of the cleanup process captured roughly half a dozen emergency workers racing to clean up the mess of the tree after the two women were rescued.

A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the council was closing Hyde Park, with crews on site cleaning up the area.

‘There are around 50,000 trees on land managed by the City of Sydney, all of which are inspected annually by qualified arborists,’ they said.

‘Any required maintenance work is carried out soon after the inspection … trees in Hyde Park were last inspected in July 2024.’

Police cars blocked off Elizabeth Street to the public while rescue workers cleared the area. 

Rescue crews were considering whether to chop the tree into pieces in order to clear the road.

Staff from the nearby Sheraton hotel ran across to help victims and search for anyone else who had been injured.

Onlookers were warned to stay away from other trees out of fears they could also fall.

The Bureau of Meteorology flagged the risk of damaging winds in the Sydney metropolitan area earlier on Friday.

The wild conditions also caused two separate trees to fall on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line, cancelling train services.

Emergency services have warned Sydneysiders to brace for more storms.

The Bureau has been monitoring a cold front across NSW, following a mass of warm, humid air on Wednesday. 

Meteorologists said the conditions had created the perfect environment for dangerous and widespread thunderstorms. 

Sydneysiders have been urged to stay away from downed power lines, and anyone with property damaged by the storms and winds is advised to contact the SES. 

Elsewhere in the city a sheet of roofing fell into the stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground after wild winds blew across the ground before the Sydney Sixers’ Big Bash League clash with the Sydney Thunder.

Security guards evacuated fans from a bay in the Bill O’Reilly Stand around 6:30pm on Friday night when roof sheeting began to flap precariously directly above.

The sheeting fell from the underside of the stand but did not hit anyone, with applause ringing out from those that had remained nearby.

The bay remained empty afterwards as security kept watch on the area.