A third person has died as Storm Babet sweeps across the UK causing widespread flooding and high winds which also forced a passenger plane to skid off a runway.
A man in his 60s died after getting caught in fast-flowing flood water in the town of Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire on Friday, West Mercia Police said, after two people died in Scotland.
And passengers had to be evacuated from a plane after it came off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport as it attempted to land in windy conditions.
There were no reports of any injuries, operator Tui said.
An airport spokesperson said: “We can confirm Tui flight TOM3551 arriving from Corfu at LBA this afternoon has moved off the runway whilst landing.
“We are working with the airline, relevant operations teams and emergency authorities to address this situation and remove passengers from the aircraft safely.”
The death in Shropshire is the third so far during the second named storm of the season.
Police Scotland previously said a falling tree hit a van near Forfar in Angus on Thursday evening, killing the 56-year-old driver.
A 57-year-old woman also died on Thursday after being swept into a river in the region.
Across England, there were more than 200 flood warnings and 200 alerts on Friday evening.
Flooding caused 70-minute delays on the A1 near Grantham, National Highways said, while further south, Suffolk declared a major incident on Friday as Storm Badet caused “major flooding” across the county.
In an update on its website, Suffolk County Council urged residents not to travel unless “absolutely necessary”.
Jon Lacey, chief fire officer for the county, said: “The continuous heavy rainfall across Suffolk is causing severe flooding in several locations but is also making driving conditions more dangerous for everyone.”
Rare red weather warnings were in place for parts of eastern Scotland all day on Saturday.
Amber alerts were in place for some parts of northern England and much of the east coast of the country had a yellow warning.
The “unprecedented” weather event has already caused some residents in eastern Scotland to evacuate their homes and cut off rural communities there.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) confirmed it had attended almost 70 weather-related incidents across Scotland including rescues from homes and flood waters.
The SFRS said it had received around 750 emergency calls across Scotland and attended 300 incidents since Thursday.
David Lockhart, assistant chief officer at the SFRS, said: “We are facing unprecedented flooding in many areas, and we must stress to the public that flood waters should always be avoided.”
More than 75 people were in rescue centres in Angus, east Scotland, while Angus Council said people in more than 60 homes in Brechin, who refused previous evacuation attempts, required rescue.
Jacqui Semple, head of risk, resilience and safety for Angus Council, said: “People are devastated. This is awful.
“It would be awful. Your house flooded, your belongings, the impact emotionally and physically and everything that goes with that.
“They’ve got all of those people who have been affected arriving at our rest centres in such a state – wet, cold, and just so unbelievably upset.”
—AAP
