FLASH floods caused chaos in some parts of Swindon as half an inch of water fell on the town in the space of a few hours.

The heavens opened just before 9am yesterday and the torrential downpours that followed closed one secondary school and flooded roads and car parks.

Churchfields School, in Salcombe Grove, Walcot, was forced to send pupils home after parts of the school were flooded.

“The storm drains have come up and there is a foot of water outside, which is coming in,” said business manager Lin Howcroft.

“We are frantically managing the situation.

“No children will be sent home unless we have contacted their homes first.

“We have about 800 children and a lot of parents to contact.”

At 9am the eastbound section of Membury Services, between Junctions 14 and 15 of the M4, was filled with three inches of water.

Patrick Nicholls, the store manager of Fone Bitz, said: “I couldn’t believe it – it happened so quickly – in literally 30 seconds the whole area was underwater.

“It was a massive flash flood – it was just so fast.”

Businesses, including WH Smith ,battled to clean the water from their shop floors.

Mr Nicholls, 21, said he thought a drain had backed up.

He added: “The customers that came in were quite shocked to see it.

“I am devastated because I am going to lose half a days business at least. I have lost some stock that was on the floor as well.”

Bruce Street Bridges, in Rodbourne, were temporarily impassable due to flash flooding and businesses in BSS House, on Cheney Manor industrial estate, frantically swept excess water from their premises.

Elsewhere, Wootton Bassett Road was closed for 30 minutes at about 3pm by Network Rail for emergency work on the railway bridge.

A spokesman for Network Rail said small stones from the railway track’s bed and become loose and had fallen onto Wootton Bassett Road below.

And the car park at the County Ground was also flooded, causing some inconvenience to motorists.

The spokesman said investigations were under way as to the cause of the shifting stones, but could not confirm whether the heavy rain was to blame.

But the worst of the weather appears to be over, according to the Met Office.

A Met Office spokesman said between 10mm and 15mm of rainfall – about half an inch – had fallen on the town yesterday, but that weather conditions would improve over the weekend.

“A lot of the heavy showers we have had are clearing away,” said George Goodfellow, of the Met Office.

“We may get some showers during the day, but nothing like as intense. Sunday should be the same.”