FLOODS overwhelmed several homes in Leigh Sinton on Saturday following a freak storm described by many as the worst in living memory.

Residents told how the village high street was transformed into a flowing river following an hour of heavy rainfall.

Malvern firefighters answered three 999 calls and spent the afternoon pumping water out of houses. They also had to rescue one person from their car because the water had risen so high, so quickly.

John and Sheila Young, from Leigh Sinton, were counting the cost of the damage to their home this week after five inches of water burst in, covering the ground floor.

Mr Young said they were on their way out to celebrate his wife's MBE award when the rain started.

"We had just got ourselves tidied up so we thought we'd let the shower pass but in the end we never got our lunch," he said.

"I've never in my life expected to see water like this. It was like the sea rolling in, it was fantastic."

Margaret Shaw's home was also flooded and the fire brigade was called in to pump the water out.

She said water was flowing in through both her front and back doors.

"I don't think the rain stopped for two hours and it hailed as well. I've never known anything like this," she said.

"The fire brigade was wonderful and a whole army of volunteers from the village came together to help, baling the water away. Out of bad comes good and I'm thankful to the wonderful support of people from the village."

Malvern meteorologist Frank Hill said the flood was the result of so much rain falling so quickly that the ground was unable to soak it up.

"We had 20mm of rain in total, 12mm in half an hour," he said.

"The highest in the country was 45mm but we've had two or three weeks of quite dry weather, so it's possible some of the water courses were blocked."