THE river Severn will continue to rise and is expected to peak sometime tonight and into tomorrow in some part of Worcestershire.

Yesterday, the Environment Agency activated six flood warnings for the county and expected water levels to peak last night but as forecaster Frank Hill predicted, heavy rain continued to push the levels up.

Nine warnings are now in place for north Worcester, Bevere, East Waterside, in Upton-upon Severn, Holt Fleet, Hanley Castle and Saxons Lode, Pitchcroft, south Worcester, Hanley Road, in Upton-upon-Severn, and Court Meadow, Kempsey and Callow End.

The gauge at Worcester read 4.98m this morning, with a peak level of between 4.9m and 5.2m expected by tonight. The gauge at Saxons Lode read 4.919m and is expected to peak at around 5m to 5.3m by tomorrow morning, with flood water possibly affecting Malvern Road.

The Environment Agency said they had defences at Bewdley, Kempsey and Upton, and Severn Trent had placed pumps on Hylton Road as water had began to spill on to the main road. Pitchcroft Moors car park on Castle Street also remained closed.

Max White, a Worcester News reader, had recorded that the amount of rainfall since the start of the month until yesterday morning had reached 155.5mm with only one day, January 12, not recording anything in his gauge. He also stated that in January 2014, Worcester had had more rainfall than the period between January and April last year.