A 70-YEAR-OLD woman was rescued by firefighters after her car was swept off the road by floodwater near Rushford Mill Farm, Chagford.

The vehicle was carried into a field by water from the River Teign which had burst its banks during the torrential rain on Wednesday.

MORE FLOOD STORIES IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION In the incident at 9.30pm, the woman managed to clamber out of the car.

Station manager Matt Johnson, the South Devon duty officer based in Torquay, said the woman was making her way back to the road with great difficulty and ended up stranded chest deep in moving floodwater.

Two crews from North Tawton and Moretonhampstead arrived at the scene and edged their way to the woman.

'They were equipped with dry suits, buoyancy aids and wading poles. Four of the firefighters encircled her and made their way back through the floodwater to the road.

'It was a very dangerous situation and she was very lucky,' said Mr Johnson.

The woman who suffered mild hypothermia was treated at the scene by ambulance paramedics, before being taken home.

Earlier in the evening two drivers became stranded in their cars on the Bovey Tracey-Widecombe-in-the-Moor road in 2-3ft of floodwater, at Haytor, between the lower car park and the Moorland Hotel. A stream was swollen and a culvert under the road became blocked and flowed over and formed a lake up against a wall on the side of the carriageway.

Mr Johnson said fire crews from Moretonhampstead and Ashburton used winches to pull the vehicles out of the water with the occupants still inside. One of them, an elderly woman from Newton Abbot was driving to Widecombe, and the other a man, was from Ashburton.

'They were both damp and shaken but otherwise unharmed,' said Mr Johnson, who praised the crews in both incidents whom he said had worked magnificently in difficult circumstances.

He said that on that night there were numerous incidents of people having to be rescued from their cars after driving into floodwater.

'Floodwater that is moving is much more hazardous than people realise. Cars float very easily in shallow water and can be swept away.

'People should absolutely not drive through floodwater unless they are completely certain it is shallow enough for them to do so, and certainly not if it is flowing. 'It causes us enormous problems. It is particularly dangerous for the firefighters as well as for those who are stranded,' he added.