Luton and Dunstable Hospital asks people to avoid A&E due to flooding

The A&E had to divert ambulances to hospitals in Bedford and Milton Keynes

A hospital has asked people to only attend its emergency department for life-threatening illnesses and injuries after it was affected by flooding.

Luton and Dunstable Hospital said people should contact the NHS on 111 or a GP for non-urgent health issues.

A spokesperson said it was affected by "severe rain and thunderstorms" at about 15:00 BST but that it was "fully operational" two hours later.

Some ambulances were diverted to other hospitals during that time period.

Sandbags could be seen piled up outside one of the emergency department entrances on Monday

John Fitzmaurice, an associate director for integrated medicine at the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told the BBC that rain water "spread across a number of departments" within A&E.

He said ambulances were diverted to hospitals in Milton Keynes and Bedford.

No patients who had already arrived were turned away and were instead warned they could face longer waits, Mr Fitzmaurice said.

Mondays are usually one of the A&E's busiest days of the week

"Thank you to the ambulance crews who helped repair and clean up the unit - everybody did an amazing job to help where they could and went above and beyond," he said.

Mr Fitzmaurice said staff tried to close off areas where water could cause electrical equipment to short circuit and he also thanked on-site GPs who "worked hard to see everyone as quickly as possible".

The trust has previously described the A&E at the hospital as one of the "busiest in the region".