Month of rain falls in 24 hours

FLASH floods swamped major roads and halted train services yesterday as more than a month of rain fell in just 24 hours.

- Jan Disley

The deluge swept across much of the Midlands, southern England and London where a pitch sinkhole caused the cancellation of tonight's AFC Wimbledon vs Newcastle game in the Carabao Cup's third round.

London Fire Brigade took around 350 calls to floods across the capital,.

Parts of the Home Counties were submerged, damaging homes and businesses, closing roads and bringing travel chaos and power cuts.

Vehicles sank in deep water, some schools were shut and some locations were hit by more than 120mm of rain nearly 5in.

An amber weather warning covered an area including Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bath and Bristol until late last night with much of the rest of England under a yellow alert.

Thunderstorms and lightning later hit Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.