Fire crews attended 12 flood-related incidents in Cambridgeshire last night after a storm swept through the county.

Between midnight and 5am, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Combined Fire Control answered more than 50 calls for the county relating to flooding.

They attended 12 flood-related incidents - six of these required no action by firefighters. Calls to a further 42 flooding incidents were taken but not attended as there was no risk to life.

The majority of the calls were to incidents in Cambridge city centre and the outskirts.

Firefighters helped residents - some of who were vulnerable - in flooded properties in Norfolk Terrace, Mill Road, Armitage Way, Trumpington Road and Barnwell Road.

Group Commander Teri Seaber, Combined Fire Control, said: “We had an extremely busy period last night and staff both in the control room and on the fire engines worked extremely hard to respond to those incidents which posed the highest risk to life.

“We did have dozens of calls, however, to incidents that we could not attend. Unfortunately, the fire service cannot respond to a 999 call from a member of the public simply because their garden, garage or porch is flooded.

“Our main job is to save lives and at times we appreciate it is hard for the public to understand this. We would therefore urge people to only call 999 when there is an immediate risk to life.”