Travel chaos as storms leave thousands stranded

• Floods cause gridlock on the M5

• Police phone lines down

• Drivers forced to abandon cars

Motorists have taken desperate measures after being stranded by extreme weather which saw some areas deluged with around three times the amount of rain normally expected for the whole of July in just over a day.

Emergency services dealt with thousands of calls as hundreds of drivers were stranded overnight, while more than 100 people had to be airlifted to safety.

The worst hit area is the M5 around Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The major flood rescue operation also saw lifeboat crews rescue holidaymakers stranded on top of their caravans.

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Car and trucks come to a halt on the M5. Many spent the night in their cars

Midday, London: Darkness shrouds the capital and cars, taxis and buses battle through torrential rain during one of a series of dramatic cloudbursts which brought death, flooding and travel chaos for the second time in a month yesterday

Close shave: A driver was rescued from his car which was almost totally submerged in 6ft of floodwater in Gloucester by a colleague who stripped off his shirt and hauled him out through the sunroof. The shaken pair then swam to safety

RAF rescue opearations are taking place across the south west of England including in Gloucestershire, Evesham, and Tewkesbury.

The Environment Agency has issued 82 flood warnings with the worst hit areas being Stratford Upoon Avon, Evesham, and Ascot under Wynchwood.

Baroness Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency said: "These are the sorts of rain falls that we experience in the past every 100 years, every 150 years, sometimes every 200 years - they're very extreme.

"The question we've all got to ask is with increasing climate change are we going to see this sort of event more frequently and do we need to start re-engineering our drainage system across the nation.

"And flood proof our essential services like our roads and our railways and our airports and our police stations to make sure if these extreme events do occur that the water can be drained away safely."

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The tube was flooded

Water cascaded down the steps at Charing Cross underground station

Strensham Services on the southbound M5 carriageway had run out of petrol and diesel.

Huge queues formed on what is traditionally a busy getaway day with the start of the family holiday season.

Motorists on the M5 were spotted on Sky News driving up the hard shoulder in a desperate bid to escape the jams which saw them stuck overnight.

Gloucestershire Police warned that normal driving rules applied and if motorists were caught they would be treated in the usual manner.

The M5 traffic has began to slowly return to normal but Highways Agency warned that severe congestion on the M5 was not expected to ease quickly as the road reopened.

It was attempting to reunite cars abandoned on the hard shoulder of the motorway with their owners.

The M50 was closed in both directions due to severe flooding at junction 2, on the A417 near Ledbury.

While there were some complaints of a lack of help, others told how people had rallied round to provide refreshments and shelter.

Some 650 people were helped by a leisure centre in the Gloucester area, and caravanners also helped those without refreshments or toilet facilities.

A forecaster for MeteoGroup UK said that Pershore in Worcestershire appeared worst hit, with 145.4mm of rain in 25 hours.

Brize Norton in Oxfordshire was drenched in around 127mm of rain in the same time period.

The usual amount of rainfall for this time of year would be 50-60mm in a month, he said.

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Red alert: Flood waters rise at Statford-upon-Avon

Any port in a storm: She clearly hadn't heard the forecast, so this young woman was forced to shelter under her handbag in Piccadilly

The weather left the emergency services struggling to cope. West Mercia Police said emergency services were treating the flooding in south Worcestershire as a major incident.

They received around 1,500 emergency calls in 24 hours, compared with an average of 900.

The Hereford and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue Service said they received over 1,000 calls for help in the past 24 hours - an "unprecedented" 10 per cent of the figure they receive annually. It carried out around 300 rescues from homes and caravan parks.

Severe flooding is expected to hit the Tenbury Wells area throughout the day and the Environment Agency has also put severe flood warnings on the rivers Severn, Teme, Avon and Arrow.

Motorists were warned not to drive through flooded roads or fords as vehicles are likely to become stranded or swept away.

Holidaymakers needing to travel through Worcestershire and Herefordshire were urged to postpone the trip for at least 24 hours as a number of minor roads in the region have also been left impassable, police said.

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Downpours and thunderstorms are affecting southern England and Wales

Lightning strikes. In South London lightning set fire to some flats

A rubber dinghy is the only way to get around in parts of south London

Meanwhile, lifeboatmen carried out flood rescue operations in Worcestershire after being called in by the local authorities.

The team of 10 men and four inshore lifeboats began helping in operations in Droitwich, Kidderminster, Wick, Pershore and Hawford, where many people were trapped on top of their caravans. Several elderly people were rescued from houses.

In Gloucestershire, around 2,000 people spent the night in emergency shelters after being forced from their cars or homes due to the flooding.

Rest centres were set up in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Chipping Campden and Moreton-in-Marsh.

Police temporarily shut the M5 motorway between junction 11 for Cheltenham up to junction 8 north of Tewkesbury.

The floods also forced passengers off trains at Oxford and Banbury with many of those stranded forced to sleep at Cherwell School in north Oxford.

At Bampton in the west of Oxfordshire more than 300 homes were affected by flooding with 1,200 left without power.

Some 140 flights going in and out of Heathrow Airport were cancelled due to the rain, and holidaymakers were being re-ticketed today.

The airport said that flights were now running as normal.