One man has died and two other people are missing after a car was swept into a swollen river during heavy rain in west Cornwall last night.
The alarm was raised at 1.41am by a male occupant of the car who managed to escape. The body of another man was found at 7.05am after an all-night search, but rescue workers are still trying to locate two other people believed to have been in the green Volvo S70 saloon at the time.
The incident happened near the village of Zennor, between St Ives and St Just.
"It appears they were attempting to cross a ford over what is normally a small stream, but which had become swollen due to some localised heavy rain," said a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police.
"We have located one body. We are continuing the search in the area for two other persons thought to have been in the vehicle."
A rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose is at the scene. More than 50 firefighters have also been working through the night. Cornwall County Fire Brigade said they had five pumps, a rescue team and two specialist water rescue vehicles at the scene. The Coastguard and Cornwall Rescue Group are also involved in the search.
Thunderstorms in the St Ives area caused flash flooding prompting several calls to the fire brigade. Two hotels, the St Ives Bay, and the Chy an Albany, were evacuated. A third, The Primrose Valley, also had some flooding.
The worst of the weather was isolated, but parts of west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly experienced half their average monthly rainfall in 12 hours.
