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A father and son died as they battled to deal with the aftermath of the floods that have devastated parts of central and southern England.
Pensioner Bram Lane, a father of three, and his son Chris, were found dead in the basement of their local rugby club in Tewkesbury, scene of some of the worst flooding following last weekend's storms.
Investigators believe they were overwhelmed by fumes from a petrol-driven pump or electrocuted as they worked to clear up the damage.
Friends described them as "linchpins" of the community who lived for their sport. They were among 12 volunteers who had gone to assess the scale of the damage at Tewkesbury RFC on Thursday.
More than 350,000 people in Gloucestershire have now been without fresh water for seven days.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said as many as 15,000 homes might have been flooded. He made a trip to Oxford, where angry homeowners have called on the Government to improve flood defences. Benn conceded there had been problems getting enough tankers to supply fresh water.
But there was some relief. It was announced that 20 megalitres of water will be fed into the Tewkesbury system to allow residents to wash and to flush their lavatories.
Tory leader David Cameron, who has been criticised for visiting Rwanda at the height of the crisis which affected his own constituency, visited flooded areas and called for a special Army unit to be put on permanent standby to deal with national emergencies such as floods, terror attacks and outbreaks of disease.
However, the Director of Public Health Dr Shona Arora said there had not been any notable increase in infections.
- Independent
