More than 1,000 fire crew calls

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to severe weather.

Crews were mobilised to a number of flooding incidents caused by heavy rain, and fires believed to have been caused by the weather across Scotland, with the east and north of the country particularly affected.

Between 10pm on Tuesday and 8am yesterday, the service’s Operations Control room in Edinburgh received more than 500 emergency 999 calls, almost 400 of which were related to flooding, while Dundee received 300 calls and Johnstone more than 200.

Fourteen people were rescued by firefighters following significant flooding on the M8, where a number of cars were submerged between junctions 5 and 6.

Six fire appliances and more than 20 firefighters were mobilised to a fire in a kitchen showroom in Falkirk.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms which is in place for parts of the country until today.

Ross Haggart, deputy chief officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said: “This has been an extremely challenging night where we received an incredibly high number of calls, making this one of the busiest nights the service has seen this year so far.

“We have particularly seen high numbers of flooding calls from the Lothian, Falkirk and Fife areas, which were badly affected by serious rainfall – resulting in a significant localised response from the national service.

“Crews also attended a number of other serious incidents including road traffic collisions and fires which may have been caused by the weather.

“My thanks must go to our crews and Operations Control for their outstanding work overnight in very challenging conditions, and to our partners for their continued assistance.

“This was an exceptional weather event and the number of severe weather incidents are increasing and as a service we must be prepared to respond to protect communities.

“We will continue to respond to incidents across Scotland, however we would urge people to be aware of the forecast where they are, and be aware of the risks.

“Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to drive through flooded areas as you may become trapped.”