Tractor driver, 57, arrested after speeding through flooded high street was allegedly rushing to save a child and ‘is deeply sorry for the damage caused’, friends say [Video]

16:15 EST 26 Nov 2024, updated 16:56 EST 26 Nov 2024

A farmer under fire for driving his tractor through a flooded market town, unleashing a damaging wave, was rushing to get to a child, friends have said.

The swell crashed through windows and doors of businesses in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire after the River Teme burst its banks during Bert on Sunday, sending water into the town.

A friend of the tractor driver, said to be a 57-year-old local landowner, issued an apology on his behalf on social media, while others said he ‘did something without thinking’.

It comes as yet more heavy rain due to hit the South overnight and into Wednesday morning from a storm passing through the English Channel brought warnings of flooding in already sodden areas.

The weather system was on Tuesday night named Storm Conall by Dutch meteorologists who predicted it would batter the Netherlands with high winds and rain.

In Tenbury, business owners yesterday claimed …