Flood barriers go up in counties as rivers rise

The Environment Agency sent crews out on Thursday to set up the barriers

Flood barriers have been put up in towns in the West Midlands as river levels rise with preparations made to install more in other locations.

Heavy rain brought flooding to Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire on Wednesday and Thursday and while roads have since reopened, river levels are expected to remain high.

The Environment Agency (EA) said its defences in Bewdley and Shrewsbury were installed on Thursday and it expected to need to put barriers up in Ironbridge and Hereford either on Friday or Saturday.

Flood warnings for the rivers Severn, Wye, Teme, Lugg and Arrow have been issued.

No further heavy rain is expected over the weekend but while the EA said some rivers have peaked, others were still rising and they expected flooding to be an issue for a number of days.

Water levels on Thursday on the Rea Brook near Shrewsbury were the highest ever recorded, according to the agency.

Bewdley is one of the towns to have flood defences put up as river levels rose this week after heavy rain

On Thursday, 24 schools were closed or partially closed because of the flooding but on Friday that number fell to three.

A handful of roads are still affected by the flooding.