THE victims of devastating floods are now living in fear of looters stealing the most valuable of their remaining possessions.

Families in South Church, near Bishop Auckland, who lost nearly everything in last weekend's torrential downpour, say they are now losing some of their few salvaged items to thieves.

Carol Coglan, who lives on the St Wilfrid's Walk Estate, said she had seen looters stealing from the devastated homes.

"I was sat outside my son's house and saw they were looting stuff.

"They took a television and video recorder. Somebody has even had a three piece suite stolen which had been left out to dry."

Police in Bishop Auckland said yesterday they had not received any complaints of thefts from residents of flooded properties.

But Bernice Wood, who runs Chippers Taxis, has been sufficiently disturbed by stories of looting to return earlier than planned to her water-damaged home.

She said: "We moved back so we could sleep here because we heard the houses were being broken into.

"It is hard to imagine going through something as traumatic as having your house flooded, and then having someone steal your belongings."

Meanwhile, the small community has proved it takes more than floods and thefts to dampen their spirits and demonstrated a "war-time" spirit of camaraderie.

Rosie Yates, from the charity County Durham Emergency Volunteers (Codev), which has been running a soup kitchen on the estate, said: "The mental scars will be there for a long, long time to come. But everyone here has shown tremendous community spirit and it has pulled them through."

Mrs Coglan carried babies, animals and children to safety through the waist-high waters and woke people unaware of the encroaching waters.

One ten-year-old, Lewis Amos, has been acting as "watchman" by keeping an eye on elderly residents' homes, and who, according to neighbours, has worked tirelessly to help people clean up their homes and gardens.