The chestnut tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary has fallen over in a storm.

The 150-year-old tree, which had already been damaged by fungus and moth infestation, snapped about one metre above its roots and crashed across surrounding gardens.

The tree, which has inspired replicas around the world, was rooted just beside the Amsterdam attic in which the Frank family hid from the Nazis for more than two years.

The teenage diarist, who died in 1945 after contracting typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, wrote that she admired it nearly every morning.

“I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind."

She added: “As long as this exists...I cannot be unhappy."

Fears that the tree was a safety risk prompted plans in 2007 to cut it down, but after a court battle it was saved and instead a metal support was built around it.