Heavy rainfall has disrupted London's streets, rivers and trains

ITV London's Carolyn Sim has this report


London has disruption on its streets, rivers and trains today after heavy rainfall last night.

The London Fire Brigade were called to Hackney Wick yesterday evening after a canal burst causing flooding around the area.

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters were called to the flooding between Dace Road and Wick Lane.

70 firefighters were called to the flooding between Dace Road and Wick Lane. Credit: LFB

Station Commander Dan Capon, who was at the scene, said: "Firefighters worked through the night to ensure the scene was safe and evacuated a number of people from surrounding buildings."

The MET office issued a yellow weather warning until 03:00 GMT this morning.

ITV London spoke to Ines Jeanne, who lives on the canal and had to move their boat in the night: “When the floods started, we didn’t know what to do. We took off the ropes. Whilst there was water up our ankles. Moving a boat at night is very stressful.

“On the boaters’ group we were messaging everyone checking everyone was alright. We still don’t know what happened. It was a lot of stress.”

Ines has lived on the canal for two years and has never experienced anything like it before.

Locals also told ITV London that they think the canal flooding was brought on by the lock not being closed properly and not just the heavy rain.

To prevent the locks being left open Ines said: “Maybe having a CRT (Canal River Trust) person to check the locks, or maybe amongst boaters checking if the locks.

"There are always boaters who go through locks, and they just leave the doors open.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Canal & River Trust said: "Our teams worked through the night alongside emergency services to deal with this situation on the Lee Navigation and continue to monitor water levels as they subside.

"Incidents like this underline the importance of our charity's work maintaining critical waterways infrastructure. "The increasing frequency of extreme weather events exposes the challenge posed by climate change to our 250-year-old network."

The mast of the Bar & Co boat Credit: PA

Further down the Thames, a party boat sunk in the River Thames because of the heavy rainfall.

The boat which had a bar, restaurant and nightclub was moored at Temple Pier, and sank as rain battered the capital.

Across the river in Kingston

Teddington RNLI has issued a warning that the Thames is running very fast in Kingston, because of the amount of rainfall last night (Thursday 4).

In a social media post @rnli_teddington, said: “The River Thames in Kingston is currently running twice as fast as it was last Friday & is extremely powerful.

“Environment Agency advises users of all boats not to navigate. If you are checking your boat please wear a lifejacket.

“If you see someone in trouble call 999 for Coastguard.”

On the railways

Great Western Railway also took to social media to report “significant disruption” on its network and is asking customers to check before they travel.

In a statement, they said: “Short notice cancellations and a reduced level of service on long-distance routes are expected throughout the day.”


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