A teenager stranded in the floods climbed a tree in pitch darkness and screamed to passers by before a branch snapped and he plunged into the water and drowned, it was disclosed today.

Mitchell Taylor, 19, who could not swim, was caught by surprise on his way home from a night out in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in the early hours of Saturday, July 21, after months of rainfall fell in an overnight deluge and left him stranded in a submerged field near the town's historic abbey.

As he struggled up a tree and clung to a branch, Mitchell shouted: "I can't swim. Please help me. I don't want to die."

A couple walking nearby, Andy and Vicki Haines, revealed today that they heard him shout but could not see where his voice was coming from in the darkness.

After calling 999, the couple waded into the water along with two others in an attempt to try to find him as a Sea King helicopter searched overhead, but no-one could see where the shouts were coming from.

"Then we heard a branch crack and a splash and we went mad, and shouted at him to speak to us. It seemed like forever," Mrs Haines, 31, told the Western Daily Press newspaper today.

"He kept saying ’I can’t swim, please help me, I don’t want to die’ and my friend Angela said ’We don’t want you to die. Just hold on and we’ll save you; it’ll be ok’.

"We tried again to give directions to the 999 operator saying which abbey window he was near.

"After about three more exchanges after the branch cracked we didn’t hear from him again, and it went quiet."

Cold and distraught, the four eventually went back home knowing it would be too dangerous to swim out to the teenager.

The next day they returned to the scene, but could not reach the trees where they last heard his cries because of rising flood waters.

Today, Gloucestershire Police confirmed that the body that had been discovered in receding floodwaters in Tewkesbury last weekend was that of missing Mitchell. It is believed he had been walking across the playing field, which had flooded suddenly as the deluge of rainwater fell, on his way back home after a night out at a bar in the town.

The teenager, known as Mitch, is believed to have worked as a part-time barman and was hoping to go to university.

Flowers and tributes were today seen to have been left the near the scene, which lies just a few hundred metres away from Tewkesbury Rugby Club, where Bram Lane, 64, and his son Chris, 27, were found dead last Thursday morning. The pair had worked through the night to clear flood water from the cellar of the clubhouse, but were overcome with fumes from a petrol powered pump.

As the youngster's identity was confirmed today, Severn Trent Water disclosed that the majority of the 140,000 households in Gloucestershire cut off when the Mythe water treatment works in Tewkesbury flooded had now seen their water supplies restored. However, those whose supply has been restored were still being warned that it was not yet safe to drink.

"We understand people still without water are anxious to learn when their water is coming back on, but it’s very difficult to give exact timescales and specific locations," Martin Kane, Severn Trent’s director of customer services, said today.

"We are aiming to have 80 per cent of homes back on supply within 24 hours. We must remind customers that when water is restored, it must not be used for drinking, even after boiling."

It can be used for showering, bathing, flushing toilets and washing clothes, he added.

In the meantime, emergency drinking water will continue to be supplied from bowsers, or water tanks, and bottles in the area. Severn Trent said there are 1,000 bowsers in affected areas and five million litres of bottled water were being handed out every day.

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