Storm Babet: Three dead as 'danger to life' warnings issued in UK

Torrential rain and high winds lash Britain for a third day

Emergency services rescuing people from the floods. Getty Images

Three people have died as Storm Babet continues to lash the UK with torrential rain and high winds.

A red “danger to life” weather warning is in place for parts of Britain and hundreds of flood alerts have been issued.

The latest death is a man his sixties who was caught in fast-flowing flood water in the town of Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire.

West Mercia Police said he became trapped in the water after a brook breached a road.

Emergency workers searched for the man after being alerted by a member of the public.

“The man was rescued from the water,” said a West Midlands Ambulance Service representative. “However, sadly, it quickly became apparent that nothing could be done to save him and he was confirmed dead at the scene.”

Police Scotland previously said a falling tree hit a van near Forfar in Angus on Thursday evening, killing the 56-year-old driver.

A 57-year-old woman also died on Thursday after being swept into a river in the region.

Emergency crews have had to rescue 20 people from a care home in Derbyshire as cars were submerged in flood water nearby.

Labour MP Toby Perkins said about 400 houses in his Chesterfield constituency have been flooded and many people “have no idea where they're going to be living”.

Jim Savege, Aberdeenshire Council chief executive, said the area is braced for further flooding amid the second red weather warning.

“It's the second red alert we've had in recent days and we've had really constant wind and rain over those days, and we're also concerned for the amber warning we have for a large part of the Aberdeenshire area,” he told the BBC.

Julie Foley, director of flood strategy and adaptation at the Environment Agency, there are over 360 flood warnings and many flood alerts across the country.

“I'm really conscious that over the weekend we've got a lot of water now moving through our river catchments, so we're going to continue to see river levels continuing to rise,” she said.

Leeds Bradford Airport closed on Friday when high winds forced a passenger plane to skid off a runway.