Uckfield Technology College principal Craig Pamphilion, of Cranston Avenue, ran into the road to halt technology teacher Richard Carter as he was driving into work last Wednesday.

As he stopped a tree crashed down in his path, narrowly missing his car.

The narrow escape was captured on the college's CCTV.

Mr Pamphilon told the Observer this week he was surprised by the media attention his act received.

He said: "It is all a bit embarrassing. People have used the word hero but I think there are differences.

"It is a bit different from a police officer or somebody in the armed forces knowing the risk and putting their life on the line. I was just being intuitive and thought it was the right thing to do.

"It wasn't a windy day, but I was looking at the tree because we had been told it was leaning a bit but nothing to worry about yet. I lined it up with something else and saw it was moving quite a lot.

"If it had been a windy day I would have closed the road straight away. When I noticed it was moving I decided to do something. I didn't think it would happen so quickly though. It happened in a microsecond. I turned away and as I looked back over my shoulder, it was coming down.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. If I had known it would be caught on video I would have had my hair cut for the occasion!"

Deputy principal Geoff Evans praised Mr Pamphilon's actions.

He said: "A colleague had alerted the principal to the fact one of the trees looked a bit unstable.

"He thought he would walk up and have a look and see if it was ok.

"He said he was lining it up with the chimneys to see if it was straight and suddenly saw it was moving.

"That's when you see him running in the video with his arms flailing, stopping our technology teacher, Richard Carter, driving straight into it.

"You can see them shaking hands at the end, I think Richard was quite shaken.

"I don't know what damage could have been caused or what would have happened."