28/06/2012

Floods Claim Life In Shropshire

A man has died after being swept away in flood water in Shropshire.

He was crossing a stream at Bitterley, near Ludlow when the accident happened.

The alarm was raised at about 10.30am and his body was found at about 11.45am after a search by emergency workers.

The man, in his 60s, has not yet been named.

His death came after torrential rains hit the English Midlands, Wales and Northern Ireland.

They are the latest areas of the UK to be affected by flooding, after northern England a week ago and Wales and the south west before that.

Flood warnings are in place in the Midlands and Northern Ireland, with some less severe flood alerts still in place in the north west of England.

The severe weather saw an inch of rain fall in an hour in some areas.

Schools and workplaces were closed, roads impassable, cars underwater and a thousand homes lost electrical power for a short time.

The serious thunderstorms were caused by warm air blowing up from the Azores meeting a cold front coming in from the west, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Meanwhile, David Cameron was confronted by a member of the public as he visited one of the towns affected by earlier floods.

The Prime Minister was getting into his car in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, when Kathleen Simpson surprised him.

She asked him to explain his responses to a number of local issues, including the floods.

(NE)

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