A team of volunteers took their lives into their hands in a bid to clear the monster-sized mass of debris trapped under the city’s main bridge.

The four men yesterday attempted to chip away at tonnes of broken branches, rubbish and sludge that have collected under Worcester Bridge over the past couple of weeks.

It is not known where the men were from, as the Canal and River Trust, the Environment Agency and Worcester City Council confirmed that they did not have teams working on the river at that time.

Worcester Rowing Club captain Matthew Norman said last night he was unaware of any of his club’s members or volunteers taking such action.

Mounds of waste have washed downstream over the past fortnight as the river and its tributaries became swollen by days of heavy rainfall.

As reported in the Worcester News last week, a spokesman for the Canal and River Trust said the debris couldn’t be cleaned because the section of the river was not currently navigable, but it would be removed as soon as the water levels were normal and safe.

Nick Worthington, waterways manager at the Canal and River Trust, said: “We appreciate that people want to help to clear this debris, as these gentleman appear to have done. We need people, who have this sort of passion for the river, to help us with our work.

“However, because of dangerously high water levels, this stretch of the Severn is currently closed.

“I would ask people to respect this closure and remain off the water, no matter how good their intentions might be.

“The debris is undoubtedly an eyesore, and I can assure people that as soon as the water lowers to a safe level we will send out a team to clear it.”

Yesterday, the miserable weather showed little sign of letting up as shoppers and workers were caught out by a sudden deluge of rain which deposited about 11mm of water on Worcester (the average for the whole of July is normally 42mm) and more than 14mm in the Pershore area. Worcestershire is in for more of a drenching today with even higher levels of rainfall expected before conditions look set to take a turn for a better over the weekend. Worcester News weatherman Paul Damari said there were signs that the jet stream would be shifting back towards its usual position as of tomorrow, bringing with it the kind of weather expected for this time of year.

He said: “We had 11mm in a short space of time yesterday – that was a lot of rain.

“Some areas towards Pershore recorded 14.2mm. The rain was very localised but it was giving large volumes and as it runs off the saturated ground that’s what causes flash flooding.

“We can expect more storms today, giving between half an inch and three-quarters of an inch of rain. They will be slow moving, last a long time and put down a lot of water.

“From the weekend, we should get some longer, warm, dry spells as the jet stream moves further north and goes back to where it should be.

“So far in July, we’ve had 104.5mm of rain when we would expect 42.6mm for the whole month.

Meanwhile, Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service did not receive any call outs to deal with incidents of flash flooding.