A 57-YEAR-OLD woman has died after being swept into a river in Angus in Scotland as Storm Babet batters the country.

Police Scotland said the woman’s body was recovered this afternoon at Water of Lee, Glen Esk, where a red weather alert for heavy rain is currently in place.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 1.45pm on Thursday, 19 October, officers attended a report of a person having been swept into the Water of Lee, Glen Esk.

“Around 4pm, the body of a 57-year-old woman was recovered from the river. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”

It comes as thousands more were left without power and facing flooding from “unprecedented” amounts of rain in east Scotland.

A new amber warning for rain has been issued for parts of northern England, the Midlands and Wales, and a rare red weather warning is in place in Scotland.

Shona Robison, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, has warned the worst impacts of the storm are yet to come.

The red Met Office warning says that from 6pm there is “danger to life from fast-flowing or deep floodwater” in Aberdeenshire and Angus in eastern Scotland, with extensive road closures expected.

The RNLI is warning people in Scotland to stay away from the coast during the storm, stressing the risk of being washed into the sea, and Scottish Water has said staff are on stand-by as sewers could flood.

The amber weather warning covering “the spine of the country” is in place from noon tomorrow to 6am on Saturday due to persistent heavy rain.

Up to 4.7in of rain could fall within that warning area and the Met Office has said homes and businesses are likely to be flooded and some communities could be cut off by flooded roads. 

Storm Babet hit Ireland yesterday after sweeping in from the Atlantic, with heavy rain causing extensive flooding in parts of the country.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces were deployed in the town of Midleton, Co Cork, where more than 100 properties were flooded.

Cork County Council said more than a month’s worth of rain had fallen in the space of 24 hours, leading to unprecedented flooding, saturated land and high river levels across the county.