This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Hundreds of rail passengers have been left stranded because of a landslide, and a military helicopter deployed after a river burst its banks during heavy rainfall that has caused ongoing disruption to parts of the country.

Fifteen flood warnings and 51 alerts were issued by the Environment Agency on Friday, with the majority in place across the Midlands and the north-west.

Conditions were now expected to settle down and temperatures rise, although showers were still expected to accompany thundery outbreaks in some parts of the UK across the weekend.

Passengers criticised the response of East Midlands Trains after a landslide left travellers stranded on a service for hours on Thursday. A second train which arrived at the site later was marooned by flooding.

The 2.34pm service from London to Nottingham ground to a halt in Northamptonshire because of heavy rainfall, and passengers were transferred to a train going to London a couple of hours later.

However, this encountered flood waters at the Corby tunnel, leading to about 500 travellers being stuck for eight hours overall. Paramedics had to board the train to treat a woman who collapsed, and doors were reportedly not opened to allow air into the train.

Passengers were eventually moved on to a rescue train with help from emergency services and taken to Kettering and Corby by coach at about 10pm. People claimed they had asked to be evacuated hours before.

The train operator apologised to the customers involved in the incident, calling it a “challenging situation” due to rubble and serious flooding curbing rescue efforts. The line remaining closed on Friday.

Elsewhere, an RAF Chinook helicopter was deployed to drop sand to help block a break in a river bank causing severe flooding in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire.

Seventy properties were hit by flooding and 100 people had to be evacuated, but Lincolnshire county council said up to 720 people could be affected. It said the town had experienced more than two months of rain in two days, and properties in the area were expected to be without power until Friday afternoon.

Flooding around Thorpe Culvert, Lincolnshire, also disrupted the East Midlands Trains route between Boston and Skegness, with services unable to run between the stations until at least Tuesday.

Meanwhile, festivalgoers endured heavy rain that caused a deluge of mud on the site of the Download rock and metal festival in Donnington, with some dubbing it “Drownload”.

After reports of a brief tornado and thunderstorms overnight at the Isle of Wight festival, tractors were deployed to spread sawdust before Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ performance on Friday evening.

Forecasters said the wettest June in the UK was in 2012, when an average of 149mm of rain fell. As of 11 June, the UK had had 55.9mm.

“Although we are at a point where some areas have seen their full amounts of monthly rain, so far we don’t think we’re on track to beat the 2012 record as a wet June,” the Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said.

“It’s something we do get now and again, which is obviously unwelcome for those people who have wanted to enjoy nicer weather.”