Edinburgh floods: torrential rain batters parts of Scotland

5 July 2021, 08:49 | Updated: 5 July 2021, 08:52

Locations in Edinburgh suffer from flash floods after torrential downpours

Flooding in Edinburgh caused trains in and out of the city to be halted during stormy Sunday weather.

Images on social media showed multiple streets of the Scottish capital awash with rain which also crept into homes, bars, businesses - and appeared to seep into a brand new shopping centre.

Emergency services attended some incidents including under one bridge in Chesser, where the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service could be seen helping vehicles which were stuck in the flooding.

A couple were also pictured by Dr Eoin Plant-O'Toole stuck at a bus stop on Roseburn Terrace where what he described as a "river" had formed.

Sunday's stormy weather also caused a problem for shoppers in the brand new St James Quarter, which only opened in Edinburgh last month.

One Twitter user, Jamie Cunningham, pointed out "a couple of design flaws when it comes to rain".

Water could be seen dripping down windows and onto the balconies of the several floors to ground level.

A spokeswoman for St James Quarter said: "Due to the severe weather in Edinburgh, parts of the St James Quarter Galleria were cordoned off for safety reasons.

"St James Quarter has been built to fully integrate with the city's streetscape and is not an enclosed building.

"Whilst St James Quarter has been designed as a naturally ventilated environment and allows some rain to come into the galleria, the extent of water ingress in two sections was mainly caused by severe rainfall testing areas within the second phase of opening which are still under construction."

At around 5.46pm, ScotRail tweeted to confirm trains between Helensburgh and Edinburgh would instead run between the coastal town "and Bathgate only" for safety reasons.

Buses were arranged to run from Edinburgh to Glasgow while Network Rail workers "set up pumps which are running and helping water levels to recede".

The rail firm also said: "Pumps are continuing to help reduce water levels in the area, but we're not yet able to reopen the line, until this reduces further."