DAYS of heavy rain have seen river levels swell, with the Environment Agency issuing three flood alerts across the Bradford district today.

Alerts were in place at the Bradford Beck in Shipley, as well as the River Aire at Apperley Bridge and the Bridgehouse Beck at Oxenhope.

River levels peaked in the early hours, before returning to normal by mid-afternoon.

Met Office meteorologist Emma Sharples said its weather station in Bingley had recorded half-a-month’s worth of rainfall in the space of 24 hours, between 10am yesterday and 10am today.

She said the finding was similar to other rain gauges in the area.

Local river levels, however, were a long way off the peaks seen on Boxing Day 2015.

In Apperley Bridge, the river peaked at 1.26m today, compared with 3.8m on Boxing Day 2015 - its highest level since records began.