Floods rescue work 'underestimated'

The Government has been accused of underestimating the scale of the flood rescue effort after new figures showed as many as 3,500 people have been rescued by the fire service in the past few days.

The Prince of Wales will visit some of the flood victims in the North of England on Friday, as the clean-up continues across the region.

Many homes remain flooded and without power with Bentley near Doncaster still badly affected. Emergency services and homeowners are anxiously keeping an eye on the weather as more heavy rain is forecast over the coming days. The regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, has promised up to £1 million in recovery funding to help businesses affected by the flooding.

Five people have already died in the flooding, which has forced hundreds of people in Yorkshire and the Midlands from their homes. The latest was in Lincolnshire where rescue teams searching for a man who went missing in a flooded canal recovered a body. The body of a man in his 60s was recovered from floodwater at Torksey Lock, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.

Official data revealed that the fire service received more than 7,300 calls to flood-related incidents on Monday and Tuesday in England and Wales, mainly in Yorkshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire and Gloucestershire.

But the figures - compiled by fire officers staffing an emergency support group - also disclosed that many other parts of the country have been hit, including Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, the West Country and north Wales.

The Fire Brigades' Union said its own research revealed that fire crews were working "to the point of collapse". General secretary Matt Wrack said: "The Government has not understood the scale, gravity and severity of what has happened. We have witnessed the biggest rescue effort in peacetime Britain by our emergency services and it's not over yet.

"Fire crews and officers have been working to the point of collapse. Emergency fire control operators have been under major pressure, with thousands of extra calls for assistance from the public. There has been a massive and outstanding national effort involving fire and rescue services from across the country.

Britain is bracing itself for more heavy rain over the next few days. The Met Office issued an early warning of severe weather, with further rain and showers forecast to sweep across parts of the UK later this week and through the weekend.