The Met Office has issued two red alerts for potentially deadly rain in the same day for the first time ever, as severe weather is battering parts of Britain.

Red alerts are the highest possible warnings, meaning there is ‘a danger to life’. It is extremely rare for the weather agency to issue them, with the two previous one coming a year apart.

The alert, which advises people to ‘take action’, expect disruption to travel and be prepared to evacuate their homes, is in place for Lancashire and Yorkshire & Humber.

Around five inches of rain is expected to fall today, almost as much as the average December rainfall in the UK, sparking more than 300 flood alerts.

    

Rescue teams have been sent out to help people evacuate their flooded homes, as Boxing Day football matches and racing events were cancelled.

    

Fifteen of the most severe flood warnings were also put out for the North West by the Environment Agency (EA) as forecasters predicted around 4.8ins (122mm) of rain could fall.

In total, across the the whole country, 335 flood warnings were in place by noon.

The severe flood warnings – the EA’s highest level of warning – have been made for a number of areas close to the rivers Wyre, Calder and Ribble

    

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The River Calder burst its banks in the Calder Valley town of Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, reaching halfway up bus stops and sheds. Residents battled against the flood water as they decided whether to evacuate their homes.

In the Calderdale area, in West Yorkshire, roads turned into streams and rivers as torrents off water poured off nearby fields and hillsides on to the ground below.

Cars queued on a main road near Bradford as drivers attempted to pass through deep standing water that had collected on the carriageway.

At Luddenden Foot, the River Calder and he Rochdale Canal had burst their banks, leaving a row of houses and a bowling club under water.

Signs in Halifax warned drivers that roads into Todmorden and Mytholmroyd were closed due to flooding. And near Mytholmroyd, a police car was stopping traffic on the A646 Burnley Road.

Cars were pictured struggling to get through water today in Ribchester, Lancashire as the water rose and spilled onto the streets.

Residents were seen being rescued in Whalley, in Lancashire, as the water had flooded their home.

    

    

The region’s fire brigade has warned motorists in the county not to drive unless they have to.

‘The rain is awful across the whole county. Don’t drive unless you need to,’ a spokesman posted on Twitter.

Lancashire Police have warned people to stay away from St Michaels and shared a photo online of flood waters threatening to spill over the sides of a road bridge.

‘Please avoid the area as we may have to close the road,’ the force tweeted.

Police have been advising residents who live near the affected rivers to start deciding whether they want to leave their homes.

People are being told to move valuables and take advice from emergency services about evacuation.

The last Met Office ‘danger to life’ alert in the UK was at the start of the month, when Storm Desmond hit Cumbria. Before that, there has only been three of its kind in the last three years – for severe gales when 108mph winds battered North Wales in February 2014, in January 2013 for snow in Wales and also in July 2012 for flooding in South West England.

The Government’s emergency Cobra committee met on Christmas Day while a company from the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, helped committees across the North West build miles of temporary flood defences.

The EA said 85% of the country’s temporary flood barriers had been sent to Cumbria, where rainfall has smashed records, and the Lakeland region braced itself again ahead of the deluge.