Deadly Storm Babet Batters Scotland And Scandinavia

Two people died and emergency services battled to rescue families trapped by flood waters in Scotland Friday as Storm Babet moved east, forcing the cancellation of flights and ferries in Scandinavia

Edinburgh, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Oct, 2023) Two people died and emergency services battled to rescue families trapped by flood waters in Scotland Friday as Storm Babet moved east, forcing the cancellation of flights and ferries in Scandinavia.

A passenger plane skidded off the runway at Leeds Bradford airport in northern England, as it tried to land in strong winds, reports said.

Images from the scene showed the Boeing 737-800, a flight from Corfu, stranded on the grass besides the tarmac.

The UK's Met Office issued a rare red severe weather warning for parts of eastern Scotland with "exceptional rainfall" of up to 22 centimetres (8.6 inches) forecast for Friday and Saturday.

Police said the body of a 57-year-old woman had been recovered after she was swept into a river in the county of Angus, northeast Scotland, on Thursday afternoon.

A second person also died in Angus on Thursday evening after a falling tree hit the van the 56-year-old was driving.

Rescue operations were underway in the worst-hit town of Brechin, northeast Scotland, after hundreds of homes were cut off by flood water.

As the storm pummeled Scotland Friday, Scottish leader Humza Yousaf warned that he could not "stress how dangerous" conditions were, particularly in Brechin.

- 'People are trapped' -

Emergency services were working to reach trapped residents but were being hampered by strong currents and flooding of up to six feet (nearly two metres).

"It's just absolutely horrendous. I've never seen anything like it," said local councillor Jill Scott, adding that hundreds of homes had been flooded.

"People are trapped... Some have been stuck there for hours.

"The boats are trying to get to them (but) they can't get to them because the current is too strong."

Further south in northeastern England a lighthouse at the mouth of the River Tyne was damaged in the storm.

Authorities said there was no traffic going in or out of the river due to six metres of sea swell.

Officials in the southern Irish county of Cork, where hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded earlier in the week, described the deluge there as the worst in at least 30 years.

A community hospital for the elderly had to be evacuated in the town of Midleton, Cork, where the main street was up to four feet under water.