Three die as Storm Babet tears across UK leaving chaos and destruction in its wake

Eastern Scotland is braced for further heavy flooding and storm damage after the Met Office issued a second "danger to life" red weather warning, and the death toll from Storm Babet rose to three.

- Severin Carrell

The emergency services rescued about 60 people from Brechin in Angus, but were unable to reach others stranded in their homes after the River South Esk surged to record heights, overwhelming flood defences erected seven years ago.

Police confirmed that three people had died so far in the storm. A man was swept away by a swollen brook in Shropshire yesterday after it emerged that on Thursday a van driver, 56, had been killed by a fallen tree in Forfar. In a separate incident, a 57-year-old woman was swept to her death in the Water of Lee in Glen Esk.

The Met Office said the rare red warning for severe flooding and disruption would cover parts of Angus and southern Aberdeenshire for the whole of today, only hours after the first red warning for the region had lapsed at noon yesterday. It said another 100mm (4in) of rain could fall there today.

With nearly 40,000 homes without power across Aberdeenshire, Angus and Perthshire at times during the day, the authorities in Angus said the military may be called in if the situation worsens.

Amber and yellow rain and wind weather warnings were also in place for Northern Ireland, the east coast from Fraserburgh in north-east Scotland to south of Harwich in eastern England, and inland across central Scotland, Cumbria, most of Wales and the Midlands.