|
Helicopters used in rescue
21/07/2007 15:56 - (SA)
London - Helicopters rescued dozens of people on Saturday following heavy rains and floods in England that also forced more than 2 000 motorists, homeowners and train passengers to spend the night in shelters.
Royal Air Force (RAF) and Coastguard helicopters since Friday have plucked scores of people from house rooftops, caravan parks and a bridge as well as areas of land cut off by water, RAF Flight Lieutenant Rhona Metcalfe told AFP.
Metcalfe, speaking by telphone from the rescue centre at RAF Kinloss in Scotland, said "we have rescued in excess of 100 people in the airlift," in the areas of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in west central England.
She said more people were awaiting air rescue, but gave no numbers.
The same area, bordering Wales, also stranded motorists in their cars. Some were forced to remain in their vehicles overnight and others chose to abandon them, rescue services said.
141 flights cancelled
In Gloucestershire, around 2 000 people spent Friday night in emergency shelters after being forced from their cars or homes.
Police said that people were now starting to leave the centres run by the county council as the waters receded.
Passengers were on Friday night asked to leave trains at Oxford and Banbury, with many of them forced to sleep at a school in north Oxford. Trains were unable to stop at Didcot station because of flooding.
"We've ordered 150 sleeping bags from the army and some of my staff have gone down to the local Tesco to get things like towels, toothpaste and soap," said John Kelly, Oxfordshire's county emergency planner.
"This is not the first choice of school, because the one we were going to had actually been flooded itself," he said.
At Bampton in the west of Oxfordshire, a county just west of London, more than 300 homes flooded and 1 200 left without power.
Some 141 domestic and international flights leaving from and arriving to London's Heathrow Airport were cancelled because of the rains on Friday, and passengers were being re-issued tickets on Saturday, an airport spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said flights were running normally on Saturday.
Some of the country's television stations briefly went off the air as satellite signals were disrupted, while computers jammed in offices.
- SAPA
|
News
