Train passengers heading to destinations across the south west of England have been told to start journeys before 3pm following warnings of heavy rain and flooding.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain across south England until 3am on Friday which is expected to cause further flooding, power cuts and road closures.

It added there is a “small chance” that communities could become cut off by flooded roads. The Met Office added that the spell of rain on Thursday was falling on already saturated ground which could cause “further flooding and travel disruption”.

The Met Office said: “The track of the heaviest rainfall remains very uncertain, but there is a chance of 20 to 30 millimetres falling in six to nine hours across a portion of the warning area, with a few places perhaps seeing 40 to 50 millimetres.

”Impacts are more likely due to the current very wet ground across the region.”

The warning comes in the wake of Storm Henk that battered the UK on Tuesday and forced people to evacuate their homes, leaving one man dead from a tree falling in 90mph winds on the Isle of Wight.