Death toll rises to four as rain batters country

London: It emerged on Saturday that a motorcyclist had also been a victim of the weather which so far has killed three others. The 42-year-old man died last night when his motorbike hit a tree branch that had fallen into the road in heavy gales.

The North of England, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland had the brunt of the heavy rain and high winds on Saturday, as the weather fronts moved up from the South West and Wales. Across the UK, many people had to be rescued from their flooded homes and abandoned cars.

A 17-year-old girl died after the 4x4 vehicle she was travelling in overturned and plunged into a swollen river. The girl and two other people were airlifted to hospital in a remote area of forestry in Powys, mid Wales.

The weather has also been blamed for causing a car accident which killed a young couple named as Barry Rowe, 29, and mother-of-one Rebecca Hoynes, 30. They died after their car, a Subaru estate, hit a grass bank and careered off the road in Plymouth, Devon, in the driving rain on Friday.

Phil Rothwell, head of flood risk management at the Environment Agency, told BBC Radio 4: "Flood levels and river levels in the south-west of England and hopefully south Wales appear to be receding now, although more rain is forecast in south Wales in the catchments affected on Saturday. "