HOMEOWNERS say they have been abandoned in an uninhabitable mess after being caught in flash floods.

Carrville, near Durham, was one of areas worst affected by the flash floods which hit the region on Wednesday.

People had to be evacuated as rainwater swept through homes and businesses at about 6pm.

Now, residents are faced with a mammoth clean-up operation and claim they have been offered little help from the authorities.

Jen and Alan Smith have been left homeless after their house in Kimley Road was flooded under 4ft of water.

Firefighters had to carry Mrs Smith's 84-year-old mother to safety and the couple discovered their car floating in the garage.

Mrs Smith is now trying to clean her home, which has been contaminated by sewage that backed up through the drains.

She said: "The water has gone, but the smell is horrendous. We've still got all our carpets down the drive and there's sewage on the roads.

"We're in the middle of a mess. It wouldn't hurt someone to come out with disinfectant."

She and her husband are now having to sleep on a neighbour's floor and they have sent her mother, who was visiting, back to Lincoln.

Mrs Smith estimates there are nine others in her road who have also been left homeless.

Neighbour Wilfred Jones, 70, and his family also had to flee their home in the same street.

It is the second time within less than three weeks that it has been inundated with sewage.

During heavy rainfall about two weeks ago, effluent back-ed up through a manhole cover in the street and on to his driveway.

After last week's floods he found that it had been washed through his home's drainage system and into the bath.

A spokesman for Northumbrian Water said that it would be conducting thorough inspections of sewers this week, as well as investigating the cause of the floods, which he said was ultimately caused by "Biblical proportions" of rain.

He said: "If property flooding is exacerbated by the waste water drainage system, then these customers will have a 100 per cent rebate of the sewage element of their water bills."

A Durham City Council spokeswoman said: "I think if environmental health know of a problem first, they will deal with it. I'm not sure if they've been told about the problem."