Severe flood warnings with more heavy rain to come

TransPennine Express, ScotRail, Avanti West Coast and Caledonian Sleeper are among affected operators.

The West Coast Main Line between Carlisle and Lockerbie is blocked, National Rail Enquiries said.

Avanti West Coast has warned people not to travel north of Preston in Lancashire, writing in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that all routes “are currently blocked in both directions”.

An amber warning for rain has been in place across parts of North Wales and north-west England, including Manchester and Liverpool, since midday on Wednesday.

A yellow warning for rain covers the north of England, the Midlands and north and central Wales until 06:00BST on Thursday, while another is in place for southern and eastern Scotland until 18:00BST on Thursday.

The Met Office has warned that fast flowing or deep floodwater that could cause danger to life was likely. Power cuts were also anticipated.

There was still “quite a long way to go” until the rain was due to stop, Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said, with wet weather expected to continue in parts of northern England until Thursday evening.

The city of Carlisle in Cumbria was the worst hit by Wednesday’s rain, according to the Met Office, recording 65.6mm of rain over a 24-hour period.

Cumbria Police said a number of properties were affected in the Stockdalewath area, with one property evacuated.

“We do expect some impact to travel within Cumbria with some flood water in parts of the county,” said Chief Superintendent Mick Bird.

Heavy rain on Wednesday caused a mudslide at Carlton-in-Cleveland, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park – leaving one person dead.

North Yorkshire Police said nobody else was hurt in the landslide but asked the public to avoid the area.

The county had received almost a month’s worth of rainfall on Wednesday, forecaster Mr Partridge said.

41.6mm of rain was recorded in a 24-hour period in Loftus, a town 20 miles (32km) away.