THE emergency services were called to reports of a person in the river in Worcestershire last night as rain battered the country, prompting more flood warnings.

Fire crews were called to assist police in Bridge Street, Stourport, at 11.45pm following reports that someone had jumped or fallen into the river but it turned out to be a false alarm.

The search came after heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday morning which left many worrying about further flooding in Worcestershire this weekend.

But Dave Throup from the Environment Agency said the rain fell mainly in Wales and the river Severn is expected to peak on Monday afternoon.

Mr Throup said last night and this morning about 30mm of rain had fallen in Wales, over the top of the catchment of the rivers Severn and Wye.

But another band of rain is expected over Wales tomorrow afternoon which is expected to result in river levels rising through Worcester, Upton and Bewdley.

In the county itself, around 10mm of rain fell between last night and this  morning, causing surface water problems on the roads.

But Mr Throup said it was “not too severe”.

The Rose and Crown in Severn Stoke was flooded on Christmas Day and landlord Peter Fryar said there was nothing more they could do now rather than wait for the water levels to go down.

Mr Fryar said: “We’ve been flooded since Christmas night. It started coming through at about 6pm, just as we were finishing Christmas dinner.

“It’s beginning to go down.

“The building is 110 years old. We did what we could but there’s nothing mroe we can do now at this point.

“It’s about a foot deep, fortunately it didn’t go into the kitchens or the cellar.

“We’re waiting it out, continuing to live upstairs.

“We would like to reopen by Thursday but it depends on how quickly the river goes down.”

People were however warned to keep their eye on the river Teme as it passed through Tenbury today as that was expected to rise “quite quickly” as a result of the rain.