Met Office issues flood warnings for southern Scotland

Emergency services are dealing with serious flooding in the Scottish Borders.

Jedburgh has been badly hit after Skip Running burn burst its banks, resulting in flooding on the town's High Street.

Homes in the area have also been affected and police and fire personnel have been called to help.

Several flood alerts are in place for Dumfries and Galloway, the Borders and South Lanarkshire for Sunday into the early hours of Monday.

The alerts apply to Argyll and Bute; Ayrshire and Arran; central Scotland; Dumfries and Galloway; Edinburgh and Lothians; the Borders and west central Scotland.

Speaking in Jedburgh, Colin Bruce, group commander at Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade, said: "When we first turned up it was extremely bad - the burn of the Castlegate had choked its culvert and the full volume of the water was going down the Castlegate and the High Street.

The area's fire chief said both homes and commercial properties have been flooded

"It has flooded a lot of properties and when we turned up there were at least three people who were reported to be trapped in their houses. Those people have now been removed from their properties.

"It was so bad when we first got here that the water rescue teams told them to stay inside because it was too dangerous to remove them.

"The forecast is much the same for the rest of the day. Once we've ensured everybody's safe we'll then go round all the commercial premises to pump out the basements."

Scottish Borders Council said a clean-up operation was under way, with council workers and voluntary groups clearing mud, silt and debris. Sandbags were also being handed out in Jedburgh town centre.

A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Traffic Scotland control centre and Scottish government resilience team is closely monitoring the situation and liaising with the police, operating companies, Met Office and other key agencies, including Sepa.

‪"While the weather is expected to improve before Monday morning, motorists should take extra care on roads affected by heavy surface water."

Nigel Goody, from Sepa, said: "Scotland has been experiencing slow moving heavy thundery showers in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, and there is the potential for further local problems caused by surface water and small watercourses, depending where more rain falls.

"Sepa is continuing to monitor all river levels and will issue further flood messages if appropriate."