Bridge collapses in floods

See also - Your flood pictures.

Emergency services have been working around the clock to deal with thousands of call-outs caused by torrential rain. In Ludlow, about 20 residents were evacuated when a bridge collapsed, causing a gas main to burst.

People from Temeside, Coronation Avenue, Corve Street and Lower Corve Street were affected. They were taken to South Shropshire Leisure Centre, which was today being used as a rest centre along with Ludlow's Tesco cafe.

Sergeant John Evans said: "The road was under about 2ft of water. There is a gas main that runs across the bridge. However, part of the bridge collapsed and that caused the gas main to fracture.

"The locals said they'd never seen anything like it before."

Dan Needham, of New Road, Ludlow, said: "In Lower Corve Street, I saw a man who was stranded in his home and calling for help from the window. He was waving the fire brigade over and they had to rescue him in a dinghy from a ground floor window.

"They couldn't get in through the front door because of the floods. It was astonishing. The whole of lower Ludlow looked like a big lake."

Residents and businesses in Much Wenlock were faced with a "raging torrent" of flood water cascading down the main High Street, forcing the emergency services to close routes into the town.

Drains "exploded" and water poured into homes leaving people stranded. Town councillor Simon Ross got into his coracle to rescue an elderly lady stranded in her home.

He said: "I was upstairs doing some work when I noticed a neighbour stood outside brushing some water away, I didn't realise how bad it was until I got outside.

"We spent a good 20 minutes trying to brush the water down the road but it just kept coming. Once the fire brigade got here we realised an elderly lady was trapped in her house so I got the coracle and picked her up from her door to bring her back to our house until the water went down."

In Worfield, near Bridgnorth, eight residents were rescued from their homes in Mill Close at about 4am today.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service used a boat to carry them to safety after water submerged the street.

The nearby Dog Inn opened to take the residents in where they were given hot drinks and breakfasts.

Residents in Ketley, Telford, were evacuated from their homes in Waterloo Road as they were under water for the second time in a week yesterday.

The water rose nearly as high as the window frames on the bungalows after pouring over their front walls. One family were still staying at a hotel after last week's floods and already had two skips full of their damaged belongings on the drive.

Amanda Price-Cooper, 35, said her two children, George, seven, Jack, four, had to be carried home last night by a neighbour.

Torrents of water caused a fire engine to crash in Coalbrookdale yesterday, while huge amounts of earth slid on to a road at Marshbrook, near Church Stretton, when a hillside became saturated and unstable.

See also - Your flood pictures.

By Andy Richardson, Simon Alton and Tom Warren