A couple who were flooded out of their home when a burst water main sent tens of thousands of gallons gushing through their bungalow face a three-month wait before they can return.

Denise and Barry Christy were watching television in the sitting room of their house in Clayton when water poured through air vents in the walls.

A fire crew from Fairweather Green helped the couple, both 44, evacuate their two sons Alistair, five, and Robert, three, who were asleep upstairs in the house in Low Lane.

The flood came after frost ruptured a water main around 9.15pm on Wednesday which links two underground reservoirs further up the lane.

It destroyed the Christys' kitchen and sitting room and left the downstairs level under several inches of water.

Firefighters tried to divert the torrent away from the house by parking their tender across the property and building a barrier of hay bales.

But the force of the flood ripped up the couple's drive and created a small lake at the bottom of their small-holding. A team of recovery specialists from Yorkshire Water spent all yesterday clearing the home.

Mr Christy, a full-time care worker, said: "Both our sons have special needs so we'll have to live in temporary accommodation until the house is repaired.

"Yorkshire Water has bent over backwards to help us and I think their people have found us a property which is just across the valley.

"The loss adjuster has pulled out all the stops for us, but he's told us that until the property dries out, it is difficult to say how long we will be out of our home but it could be at least three months."

Next-door neighbour Janet Booth, 51, who raised the alarm after she spotted water lapping at her patio doors, said her bungalow escaped the worst of the flood thanks to the fire crew's efforts.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said the company's insurance would pay for all the damage.

She said: "It's too early to say how long the repairs to the houses will take but it will be done as quickly as possible."