The UK’s meteorological office has issued a flood warning for parts of Staffordshire and Lancashire as heavy rains continue to cause chaos in many parts of Britain.

The warning follow heavy downpour in the south-east on Thursday with about 70mm rains across parts of Sussex and Kent. “There’s still quite a lot of rain at the moment but the emphasis is changing to across the Midlands into Stoke, Staffordshire, and Manchester. It will increasingly push north into Northumberland and Scotland,” a Met official said.

The Environment Agency has said that the weather is going to settle at the weekend but not before some rains in northern England, southern Scotland, across Wales, the West Midlands and parts of the South West.

On Thursday, along with the flood warning, several alerts were also issued for parts of the country after torrential downpours and thunderstorms increased the likelihood of flooding.