Major incident declared in Fife after thunderstorms

Media captionTorrential rain and thunderstorms battered many parts of Scotland

A major incident has been declared in Fife after torrential rain and thunderstorms battered many parts of central and eastern Scotland.

Emergency services said 28 people were rescued after a landslide at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park.

That also resulted in caravans being evacuated and 218 people spending the night in emergency accommodation.

A number of homes have also been flooded and many schools in the area are closed.

Image caption More than 200 people had to be evacuated from caravans at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park Image caption The landslip affected 450 caravans at Pettycur Bay.

It comes as emergency services were called to a train derailment near Stonehaven. The alarm was raised at about 09:40.

At First Minister's Questions, Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament there were "early reports of serious injuries".

Image caption Smoke is billowing at the scene of the train derailment

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to the severe weather.

Between 22:00 on Tuesday and 08:00 on Wednesday, the service's operations control room in Edinburgh received more than 500 calls on the 999 number, 400 of which were related to flooding.

The Dundee centre received 300 calls and Johnstone more than 200.

The service said it was called to multiple reports of flooding in the Perthshire area, with many domestic properties affected.

There were also reports of homes in North Lanarkshire and Perthshire being flooded.

ScotRail said lightning strikes had also caused power outages and disruption across the network.

Fife's Local Resilience Partnership (LRP) was activated following a number of incidents across the region.

Image copyright Stuart D Image caption Flooding at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy saw cars piled on top of each other Image copyright Rachel Finlayson Image caption The water was at its deepest at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy overnight

As well as the incident at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park, police, fire and council services are currently dealing with flooding issues in Freuchie, Cairneyhill, Cardenden, Kinglassie, Culross and Lochgelly. As a result, a number of road closures are in place and local diversions are in operation.

A number of people have been evacuated from their homes, and various schools and roads are closed. The main East Coast rail line is also closed due to the landslide.

Supt Sandy Brodie from Fife's LRP said: "I want to reassure residents that we are working to get services back up and running as quickly as possible and will continue to monitor the situation. In the interim, I would ask people not to travel unless absolutely necessary."

Overnight flooding at Victoria Hospital car park was an unwelcome surprise for NHS staff coming off night shift.

Image copyright Arnie Mackay Image caption Streets were flooded in Perth as heavy rain swept across the area

An NHS Fife spokesman said: "Our staff have worked tirelessly overnight to manage the unprecedented flooding at our Victoria Hospital site.

"A recovery effort is now under way to remove the damaged cars."

Perth and Kinross Council said several roads in the area were still impassable due to flooding.

Image copyright Phil976 Image caption Lightning lit up the skies over Edinburgh

Thunderstorms and torrential rain caused travel chaos for people in the north-east. Many schools, which were due to open for the first time in five months, have remained closed.

The intensity of the rainfall left the drainage system on many roads in Aberdeenshire unable to cope, leading to huge pools of standing water.

Image caption Stonehaven town centre was cut off by the flood water

Streets in Stonehaven town centre were under more than a foot of water, with the owners of a local fish and chip ship saying they were "devastated" at being flooded for the fourth time in nine years.

A number of residents in Aberdeen became trapped by the rising water and had to be rescued by dinghy.

Several schools, including three academies in Aberdeenshire are shut.

A Met office yellow weather warning for thunderstorms is in place from 15:00 to 21:00.

It warned that some places were likely to see "further severe thunderstorms", but with "significant uncertainty in location and timing".

The warning covers southern, central and northern Scotland.

Meanwhile, Sepa issued flood warnings for Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Angus and Tayside.

Bear Scotland said the Old Military Road in Argyll would close overnight for a third night due to weather warnings. A diversion via the A83, A82, A85 and A819 will apply from 21:00 until an inspection at first light.

Image copyright Met Office Image caption The updated Met Office warning for Wednesday

The fire service said a number of homes were flooded in Airdrie, while they also attended flooding on the M8 after the dual carriageway was inundated with water between junctions five and seven.

Police were advising people to avoid the area completely as diversion routes were also becoming flooded and impassable.

A Police Scotland spokesman said no injuries hade been reported.

Image caption A house in Reddingmuirhead had its roof damaged when lighting struck at about 04:00

A family home in Reddingmuirhead near Falkirk was badly damaged after being struck by lightning.

The house lost its roof after catching fire shortly before 04:00. Residents say the family escaped unhurt but "have lost everything."

It is thought a butcher's business in the nearby village of Brightons was also hit by lightning around the same time.

A processing unit beside the butcher's shop was destroyed.

Image copyright @BBCWthrWatchers/ JaneyMac Image caption Roads were flooded around Duthie Park in Aberdeen

The thunderstorms also saw:

The fire service control room in Edinburgh receive more than 500 calls through the night amid widespread thunder and lightning and torrential rain.All flights due to land at Edinburgh Airport are being diverted or delayed. BT's incident management team said a major outage at an exchange in Edinburgh, caused by the weather, was affecting about 100,000 customers' broadband on BT, EE and Plusnet in the city and surrounding area. It was reported at 06:30 and engineers were on site working on the issue.And Highland Council said it was having "major issues" with internet and network issues following the thunderstorms. It said the problems affecting its sites and home working access were due to the flooding of the exchange in Edinburgh. Image copyright Cazzalad1801 Image caption Torrential rain brought flooding to eastern parts of Scotland

In addition, Sumburgh Airport was closed to all arriving and departing aircraft on Wednesday morning due to the adverse weather conditions but remained open for emergency flights.

In Perth, heavy rain caused flooding which affected the city's railway station.

ScotRail posted pictures of the water covering the tracks on social media.

At 09:25, ScotRail said there were no trains operating on the following routes:

Edinburgh - Fife Edinburgh - Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High & Grahamston Edinburgh/Glasgow - Dunblane Edinburgh - West Calder Aberdeen - Edinburgh/Glasgow Aberdeen - Dyce Inverness - Perth