Sixty escape caravan park after flood

POLICE divers and an inshore lifeboat were yesterday searching a caravan park which was submerged under six feet of water after a river burst its banks.

About 60 people had to be taken to emergency accommodation when the River Dee overflowed into the Lower Deeside caravan park at Maryculter, five miles west of Aberdeen, after heavy rain.

Families were staying in caravans, mobile homes and chalets at the largely residential park.

The alarm was raised by one of the site residents who phoned Grampian fire brigade early yesterday morning to say the caravans were surrounded by rising flood water.

A police spokesman said most of the residents managed to escape to higher ground as the water began to rise, although some had to be rescued from the roofs of caravans after becoming trapped.

Police divers and firemen using thermal imaging cameras checked partly submerged caravans and chalets to make sure no one was trapped.

Later, a police spokesman said that everyone at the site was accounted for.

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