The body of a woman has been recovered from a river as parts of Scotland battle fierce wind and rain with the arrival of Storm Babet.
Police confirmed the body of the 57-year-old woman was recovered from a river in Angus this afternoon, where a red weather alert is in place.
Officers were called to the Water of Lee at Glen Esk at about 1.45pm and the body was found at 4pm
A force spokesperson added: "There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.”
Earlier, residents in the flood hit area of Brechin were ordered to evacuate amid a red weather alert, with temporary rest centres set up.
A Met Office warning for the North-East of Scotland has been extended as Storm Babet batters the country.
Residents in the flood path in Brechin have been ordered to leave, with councillors going door-to-door and a severe flood warning about to be put in place for the South Esk River area.
People in the area have been told to evacuate their homes as a matter of urgency.
Read more: Scotland weather warning: Live Storm Babet updates
The council said: “Over the past few days, resilience colleagues have been working with Sepa to identify areas at most risk of flooding due to the unprecedented level of rain that is expected to fall across Angus.
“Sepa have advised of a possible severe flood warning.
“As a result, we have identified approximately 335 homes in Brechin, and an additional 87 homes in Tannadice and Finavon where residents will be asked to evacuate for their own safety.”
One resident says he has no intention of leaving his home despite reported evacuations amid a red weather warning.
John Stewart, 82, told the PA news agency he will not be leaving his home should the local authorities attempt to evacuate him.
Instead, Mr Stewart has built a wall around his garden to protect his home from flood damage.
He said the wall had successfully stopped water from getting in from the street previously where flooding was severe.
He said: “I won’t be leaving because my wife won’t go.
“The trouble is, the last time there was flooding we couldn’t get sandbags and ended up paying £3 each for them.
“The council is supposed to give you that stuff and they don’t.”
Asked if he believes the council has a duty to supply such items to Brechin residents, he said they should “look after” the people in the area.
Met Office Chief Meteorologist Jason Kelly said: “Eastern parts of Scotland will see exceptional amounts of rainfall over the next few days and the significant accumulations are likely to cause considerable impacts from Storm Babet.
“Numerous Amber and Yellow rainfall warnings are in place for rainfall over the coming days, up-to and including Saturday, but in the red-warning area 100-150mm of rain is expected to fall quite widely, with some locations possibly seeing 200-220mm, which is expected to cause considerable impacts with flooding likely.”
Pascal Lardet, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) Flood Duty Manager, said: “Scotland has already experienced a significant flood event this month, which communities are still recovering from, and some of the rainfall totals forecast for this week are higher than experienced over that weekend – albeit in some different areas.
“We’re expecting extensive river and surface water flooding in affected areas, with widespread impacts to transport and infrastructure. There is a risk of more significant community scale property flooding – and there will be danger to life.
“Regional Flood Alerts have already been issued, and localised Flood Warnings will be issued over the next few days as rivers respond. However, it is important to note that not all areas that could be affected have Flood Warning schemes, so please do take a Flood Alert in your area as advance notice that you could be affected.
“Take action now to protect yourself and your property. Hazards can be hidden, so please don’t walk or drive into flood water. Remember that not only is flood water likely to be dirty, 30 cm of fast flowing water can move an average family sized car, and just 15 cm of fast flowing water could be enough to knock you off your feet.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here