Rail commuters returned to Shipley to find thousands of pounds of damage to their cars – with most believed to have been written off – after Bradford Beck burst its banks, flooding a road used for parking near Shipley station with up to four feet of water.

At its height, the flood water was so deep that three cars were seen floating across the road after it surged in torrents over a boundary wall next to MB Motors car body repair shop at Perseverance Works, off Leeds Road.

Mark Bingham, 49, the owner of MB Motors, said: “First of all the water just started trickling over the wall and then it suddenly went like a river and within five minutes it was about three and a half or four feet deep.

“It rose up right above the windows of the cars then it just started flooding all over the place.

“It just lifted the cars up and they were all over the place. It was like a torrent. It came from nowhere.”

Mr Bingham said there had been flooding in the same area about four years ago, again when commuters parked in the sloping road.

“There were 13 cars just written off. There were women crying when they came back from work to find what had happened.”

In Bradford city centre channels of rainwater swept down roadsides while pedestrians dodged huge sprays of water from passing traffic and Canal Road was under at least one foot of water as traffic continued to surge through it.

Major flooding was reported on the moors between Bingley and Menston with speeds on many of the district’s roads reduced to just 20 mph.

Fire service operators were getting inundated with calls from people wanting help with floodwaters round their homes and properties.

Householders in Oakworth, Keighley, were also left “devastated” when water started pouring into their homes for the second time in a fortnight.

Julie Hastings, of Heritage Way, has been staying with her partner Michael Wisaur (crrt) – with her 13-year-old son Keiran sleeping on the couch – since her home was flooded when water flooded in from her garden through the patio doors on June 22.

She said: “I’m devastated. Six months ago, I was in hospital with stress, they thought I had had a stroke but it turned out to be severe migraine. I do not need this stress again.”

Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court suffered some flooding in the cells area, when drains failed to cope with the amount of water.

Some male defendants had to use cells allocated for females, and solicitors were told to see their clients as a matter of urgency in case prisoners had to be taken back to police stations.

Part of the roof of a Gomersal house was damaged when it was struck by lightning yesterday morning.

Firefighters from Cleckheaton were called to the scene, in Fern View, shortly before 8.30am.

The electricity was isolated and a cordon was put in place after slates were blown from the roof, a spokesman for the fire crew said.

No-one was injured but the owner of the house was described as shaken up.

“It could have been a lot worse,” the spokesman said.