90 passengers evacuated after UK train stuck in flood water

Around 90 passengers had to be rescued from a train in southern England after it became stranded in floodwater following thunderstorms.

The train had been travelling from London to Swansea and become stuck in around one-metre of floodwater at Pound Pill in Corsham just before 1am on Friday morning.

It took five hours for the Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service to remove the 90 passengers from the train.

The Bath Chronicle reports that the train was eventually reversed so passengers were able to disembark at a less flooded site. A fleet of taxis then took the passengers home.

Passengers took to Twitter to share images of the scene.

One passenger, Robin Matthews, told the BBC: "We were about 20 minutes outside Swindon and all of sudden there were bright flashes in the sky followed by thunder and it got louder and louder."

He added the storm was "very, very close and the windows started rattling" when the service "came to a complete halt. The driver announced there was signal failure and we had to stop."

The Western Daily Press reports that a month's worth of rain fell on Wiltshire on Thursday night, creating the travel chaos.

The paper adds that fire crews were called out 200 times in Wiltshire alone on Friday as a huge thunderstorm rolled across Wiltshire, Bath, Gloucestershire and Bristol.

Over in Melksham, a house was partially destroyed by fire after it was struck by lightning.

The owners were on holiday in Greece at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, over in Essex, people have been rescued from cars trapped in flood water and a hospital building was struck by lightning during bad weather.

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service received more than 100 calls to over 30 flooding incidents in Southend during a "very busy two-hour period" from 9.30pm on Friday night after heavy rain hit the area.

Firefighters helped six people to safety after the cars they were in were trapped in flood water at the roundabout at the junction of Woodgrange Drive and Thorpe Hall Road shortly around 10pm.

There are renewed warnings of thunderstorms across the UK for Saturday.

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