Thames Barrier Closed After Floods

The Thames Barrier has been closed for the third time in two days after a combination of high tides and heavy rainfall over the weekend threatened London with flooding.

The risk, which saw the Environment Agency issue 17 flood warnings and 135 flood watches across England and Wales, rose after days of heavy rain saturated the ground, causing the water table to rise substantially.

Officials are hopeful the threat will subside over the coming days, but said there would continue to be a low risk of flooding from the sea along the south coasts of England.

Craig Woolhouse, the agency's head of incident management, said: "We are continuing to closely monitor river and sea levels, but many of the flood warnings we issued are being downgraded."

The weekend's downpours were caused a storm that left at least 51 people dead in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium.