No-travel warning in Northern Ireland due to flooding as Met Office issues new yellow warning ahead of Storm Ciarán

Police have told residents in Northern Ireland not to travel after heavy rain caused flooding overnight.

Parts of Newry in County Down have been flooded after the city's canal burst its banks, with travel and transport heavily affected. Authorities told residents not to travel between 9pm on Monday evening and 9am on Tuesday morning, with an amber rain warning, the second most severe, in place.

Newry resident Desy Heatley said: “We were up and down here in boats. It’s pretty bad, I’m sure all the shopkeepers are raging, we’d no warning or nothing.”

The poor weather exended over the border into the Republic of Ireland. A 24-hour rain warning is in play for County Kerry in the south-west, after considerable flooding in Co Louth on Tuesday. Ireland’s Environment Minister Eamon Ryan told RTE Radio one: “My heart goes out to those up in Cooley, Carlingford, down in Wexford I know there has been particular flooding, as well as Newry, as well as what happened to Middleton (Co Cork) obviously a few weeks ago,”

Th Met Office's yellow rain warning will cover most of Northern Ireland again from 9pm on Tuesday evening until 9am on Wednesday morning. It comes as the Met Office issued a new amber weather warning for areas across Pembrokeshire in Wales and the southern coast of England, with areas such as Portsmouth also seeing heavy rain from yesterday evening.

The new amber warning for wind will be in place from Thursday, when the Storm Ciarán is expected to touch down in the UK. Almost the entire southern coast of England will be covered by the weather warning, with yellow warnings for rain also in place. The Met Office has said that gust between 70mph and 80mph are expected, although some exposed coastal areas could even see gust of up to 85mph.

Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir told Sky News: “We could see some coastal flooding because the winds will be so strong, particularly initially across more southern areas. It’s not a fast-moving system, so it’s going to be with us for at least two-and-a-half, if not three, days and most places will be impacted in some shape or form by this storm.”