Amiracle no-one was killed as `wall of water' hit village.

Byline: CHRIS COURT

POLICE last night said it was a miracle that no-one appears to have been killed in flood-hit Boscastle when a wall of water tore through the streets of the pretty Cornish village.

Chief Superintendent Dave Hill, the incident commander, said they thought there would be loss of lives when the incident began.

``While we cannot be certain that there might be people who are missing, the indications are that we look as if we are, miraculously, going to get away without any fatalities.

He said a cordon would be maintained around the village to enable the emergency services to carry out their work.

``We have to be conscious if we have any more heavy downpours we may have a similar situation of water rushing through the village, '' he said.

He could not say how long it would be before the village returned to normal.

``I am determined we will do a thorough job before we allow people back.

``There is massive structural damage to major buildings. ''

As rain began to fall on Boscastle last night, the officer said no-one was being allowed into the village, adding ``we cannot take any risks''.

Cornwall's deputy chief fire officer Matt Littmoden said they were now concentrating on recovery work.

``We searched the area looking for anybody who might still be there, but found nobody, '' he said.

The floods swept away cars from the car park at the foot of the steep village.

Mr Littmoden added: ``I think there were twenty cars.

``We have checked all the cars that we can see, we will have to wait and see what the tide uncovers.

``There is a lot of debris and as we start to lift it out, it could reveal casualties.

Mr Littmoden said sniffer dogs had been used but he understood that all villagers had been accounted for.

Cornwall County Council emergency planning officer Martin Rawling said that when the flood hit on Monday night 60 holiday makers were put up at the Boscastle village hall, then Camelford leisure centre.

They were last night continuing to be looked after by the authority and WRVS, and it was hoped they could collect their belongings today and return home.

Devon and Cornwall's chief constable Maria Wallis said: ``I have met residents and visitors and have seen the shock that they have suffered. It is going to take a long time to get back to normal. ''

The weather was similar to that which caused the 1952 flood at Lynmouth in which 34 people were killed. In that incident, 18 hours of rain caused by an Atlantic depression combined with unstable air rising over Exmoor, which increased the rainfall.

The water flooded down the East and West Lyn Rivers which join at Lynmouth and swamped the town, destroying homes and buildings.

The current localised weather pattern is separate from heavy rain forecast as the tail-end of Tropical Storm Bonnie influences the UK weather system.

`Ex-hurricane air' from Bonnie has been moving into the north Atlantic and will bring more heavy rain and winds to the UK throughout the week, although not on the scale that the country saw last week.

CAPTION(S):

A trail of devastation after Boscastle was hit by floods Picture: BARRY BATCHELOR