Teenagers rescued from flood water after river bursts banks

Two teenage boys had to be rescued by firefighters after they became trapped in a flooded area of the Riverside Park in St Neots on Monday afternoon.

A boat also sank and part of the embankment appears to have collapsed across the River Great Ouse from the park which was hit by flooding and high river levels during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

Huntingdon Racecourse lost its Easter Monday meeting, disappointing about 4,000 horse racing fans because much of the course was under several inches of water.

The Environment Agency also issued a number of flood alerts across the Huntingdonshire area, although the flood waters have been receding.

A fire service spokesman said a crew from St Neots was called in to rescue the teenagers from the town’s Riverside Park just after 5.30pm on Monday.

“Wearing in-water personal protective equipment and using the rescue sled, firefighters rescued two males from a park which had become flooded,” the spokesman said.

It took the crew about an hour to deal with the incident.

A police spokesman said they were called to an incident at the park involving two teenage boys with bicycles.

“Both males were brought to safety from knee-high water and were rescued by the fire service,” the spokesman said.

Liam Johnson, general manager at Huntingdon Racecourse, said they realised on Friday that the Easter Monday meeting was in doubt as water levels had begun to rise and more rain was forecast, making the decision to call it off on Saturday.

“The meeting on Monday had to be abandoned due to flooding. It is disappointing because it was the Easter bank holiday but there was five to six inches of water on the course and there was nothing we could do about it,” he said.

The course is in a flood plain and has a brook running past it, meaning it is prone to flooding.

By Tuesday Cambridgeshire still had two flood warnings - indicating flooding was expected - on the River Nene south and east of Peterborough, together with 21 flood alerts - where flooding may be possible - including the Alconbury and Ellington Brooks, Bury Brook at Ramsey, the Hundred Foot Washes, the Great Ouse and the River Kym and its tributaries.