A Swansea book store has been devastated by heavy rain overnight, ruining a significant amount of books and forcing it to close.
Water started pouring into Waterstones in Oxford Street at 4am this morning after the city was hit by flash flooding.
Damage has been caused to the first floor of the building, which was the former home to the old dating back to 1914.
The doors have now been closed to customers while staff try to save as many books as they can, stop the flooding and stop it from spreading.
Steve Gane, who has been manager at the store for nearly 25 years, said: "The first floor had a significant flood. We've tried to save as many books as we can, but we can't save them all. We're trying to stop the water from spreading.
"We won't know how many have been damaged until we take stock afterwards and reorder, but it is not an insignificant number.
"It's awful, it has been a horrible, horrible thing to come in and see the damage to the books. The carpet is also sodden."
Mr Gane said an alarm which went off in the store alerted them to the flood at 4am.
"We've had floods before but nothing as bad as this," he said.
"It's a clean up operation now, it's all hands on deck and we're using everything we can to stop it spreading. We're using a tonne of tissue, mops, buckets, every bookseller is on the shop running round like crazy."
Mr Gane said there were hopes the branch would be re-opened later on today, but more realistically tomorrow.
"The first floor will certainly be closed for a while," he said.
"Hopefully we'll be open later today but is is likely to be tomorrow."
It is not the only area of Swansea to be hit by flash flooding today.
Oystermouth Road and the Marina have also had their roads submerged in water, among other areas.
What! in Oxford Street is also closed due to flooding.
The Met Office had predicted heavy rain quickly clearing northeastwards this morning, giving a brief, drier interlude before scattered showers develop from the west.
The showers may become heavy and thundery at times, forecasters said.
This evening, there will be a mix of clear spells and showers overnight, with the showers turning heavy at times. It is expected to be very windy, with gales developing along the coast.
