Walking on water

Heavy snow and winds caused chaos in part of Northern Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday night with up to 300 people rescued from a mountain road after conditions overwhelmed vehicles.

Blizzards cut electricity to around 50,000 homes, while snowdrifts and fallen trees closed a large number of roads.

The police, coastguard, mountain rescue and Department of Environment launched a joint rescue operation after motorists became stranded when 3ft-high snowdrifts swept across the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Londonderry.

There was widespread flooding on local roads and flights were disrupted overnight on Tuesday.

When the River Bush bursts its banks on Wednesday, local woman Rubina Boyce grabbed the opportunity for a paddle outside her Millennium Park home.

She told the Times: “The photograph was taken around 4.30pm on Wednesday by husband Winston, who is a keen amateur photographer.

“He thought it would make a good picture someone sitting on the summer seat outside our house and I was happy to oblige once I got my wellingtons on!

“You can see that there was six to eight inches of rain overnight on Tuesday.”

Across Northern Ireland up to 30,000 homes remained without power last night after one of the worst storms to hit the Province.

An estimated 100,000 premises suffered power cuts over the ‘24 hours from hell’, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said.

“The last time we had an ice storm in Northern Ireland was 10 years ago and it was concentrated in the Downpatrick area. This went right across Northern Ireland so it was on a whole different scale. This was the worst we have ever experienced,” spokeswoman Sara McClintock said.