The rescue operation launched after heavy rain battered the UK on Monday was the most extensive peacetime operation of modern times, it emerged today, amid warnings of more storms to come.

The Fire Brigades Union said that the emergency services’ efforts dwarfed the rescues after the Boscastle flooding and the Ibrox and Hillsborough stadium disasters.

There have been more than 600 casualties and at least five deaths due to the deluge that soaked the UK with up to 100 mm of rain in 24 hours. Firefighters have rescued 3,500 people across the country, and thousands more have been forced from their homes, with emergency shelters set up across Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Monday's rains and flash flooding were described by the Met Office as a once-in-a-century event.

Today it forecast that conditions will worsen once more approaching the weekend. Between 10 and 20mm of rain are predicted for this evening as a wet front sweeps across England and Wales. Intermittent showers will continue until Saturday when more persistent rain is predicted.

Up to 25mm is expected to fall everywhere in England on Saturday, said the Met Office, but the most severe flood warnings are being issued for the east coast, where as much as 50mm is predicted for late on Saturday.

A 60-year-old man who died in a flooded canal in Lincolnshire was confirmed as the latest fatality. Rescue teams found his body after the man fell from his dinghy this morning, in unusually high water at Torksey Lock, near Gainsborough.

On Monday and Tuesday alone, the fire service received 7,300 calls to flood-related incidents. The majority of rescues took place in Humberside, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire and Gloucestershire, but other areas have also seen a dramatic increase in calls for emergency help after flooding.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said that fire crews had made an outstanding effort under huge pressure. “Fire crews and officers have been working to the point of collapse. Emergency fire control operators have been under major pressure, with thousands of extra calls for assistance from the public,” he said.

“The Government has not understood the scale, gravity and severity of what has happened. We have witnessed the biggest rescue effort in peacetime Britain by our emergency services - and it’s not over yet.”

The Environment Agency expects the number of flood warnings to stabilise in the next day or two, but is working closely with the Met Office to plan for the latest storms.

Alongside the efforts of the emergency services, details emerged today of a heroic effort to save Peter Harding, 68, who died in Sheffield on Monday evening.

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