One dead and two missing as car is swept away in flash flooding

Published on Saturday 25 April 2009 20:00

ONE man died and another man and teenage girl were missing last night after their car was swept away while crossing a swollen stream during flash floods.

A fourth man, aged 20, escaped the Volvo saloon – an off-duty taxi – as it filled with flood water and reported the three others missing.

A man aged 26 and a 17-year-old girl remain unaccounted for but rescuers last night promised to "pull out all the stops" to find them.

The vehicle got into difficulties in the early hours of yesterday while trying to make the crossing in the village of Zennor, near St Ives in west Cornwall.

The body of a man aged 20 was recovered just after 7am downstream from where the Volvo S70 was found "fully submerged and full of water", Devon and Cornwall police said.

All those involved were local and had been out together.

Divers, firefighters, the coastguard and rescue helicopters combed the rugged stretch of coast, 14 miles from Land's End for the missing people.

The man freed himself from the car before it was sucked out into the water on the B3306 between St Ives and St Just.

He called ambulance control at 1.41am saying that three others were lost.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "It appears the occupants were known to each other and were out with each other.

"We hope that the missing persons managed to get out and made off on foot somewhere.

"We are searching for survivors. Officers aim to carry out as thorough a search as possible before nightfall. They are pulling out all the stops."

The search will resume at first light.

The car was found 100 yards downstream and the dead man further down the watercourse. Police have yet to identify formally the man, and his next of kin have not been informed.

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Zennor is known for its rugged landscape and meandering streams.

With a population of around 200, most of the land is owned by traditional Cornish farming families.

The tragedy happened as flooding was reported in several parts of St Ives, due to heavy rainfall.

Flooding caused havoc at three hotels in St Ives, with the St Ives Bay and the Chy an Albany hotels being evacuated.

John and Mary Clifford found that their cottage in Zennor quickly filled with up to a foot of water in the worst flash flooding they had ever experienced. John Clifford, 68, said it was a "desperate" situation and that the coastal road where the car was swept away was prone to flooding. Apart from the water the mud and sludge is devastating," he said.