Severe flooding causes road and rail disruption in Scotland

Flooding has caused travel disruption across Scotland after heavy rain in many parts of the country.

Several rail services were cancelled and sections of the M9 and the M74 motorways have been closed.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued a series of flood warnings in central and southern areas.

The warning was raised to severe in Whitesands, Dumfries after intense rain through the day brought a "rapid and extreme rise" to the River Nith.

Sepa said the river was forecast to exceed levels seen in Storm Frank in December 2015 and also the higher flooding of December 1982.

The agency had 34 other flood warnings in place. River levels were expected to peak on Friday evening.

The Met Office earlier issued an amber alert covering Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, with warnings of 40-50mm of rain.

Sepa flood duty manager, Vincent Fitzsimons, told BBC Scotland that specific areas were cause for concern.

"We are already seeing impacts to transport and to agricultural land, but the rivers are rising rapidly in response to that intense rain," he said.

"Those peaks could be significant in the southern part of the country.

"We are keeping a particular close eye on communities in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders area - communities like Dumfries, Hawick, Peebles and Newton Stewart - but we are also monitoring further north into the Clyde Valley and Kelvin Valley and the Water of Leith."

Mr Fitzsimons said a swathe of southern and central Scotland was at risk and as river levels continued to rise, community-scale flooding could affect properties and riverside towns.

"This is potentially a significant event. What we are worried about is the intensity of the rainfall in a short period of time," he added.

Police Scotland Supt John Cairns said that the local resilience partnership was monitoring incidents of flooding and concerns over properties.

He said people should not travel unless absolutely necessary.

"The multi-agency response will be focused on additional flooding from water courses and rivers making their way to areas such as Whitesands, Newton Stewart and Langholm," he said.

"We are aware of concerns in towns and villages across the region. No properties have been flooded but mitigation measures have been taken."

The Dumfries and Galloway Virtual Operations Support Team website was activated, signifying a major incident in the region.

Dumfries and Galloway Council closed The Whitesands in Dumfries to traffic from 10:00, before the River Nith burst its banks in the afternoon.

Multiple roads around the village of Glenlee between New Galloway and St John's Town of Dalry were closed including the A762 at Waterside and Lochside Point, the A712 at Ken Bridge, B7000 at High Bridge of Ken and the A713 at Parton Mill.

Elswehere, the M74 was closed northbound at junction 13 near Abingdon due to flooding, with Traffic Scotland reporting delays of about 80 minutes in both directions.

The M9 was also closed in both directions between junctions 9 and 10, near Stirling.

On the roads:

Rail travel was also affected. Network Rail Scotland said more than 20 flooding issues across Scotland's railway caused "severe disruption".

The line at Bowling in West Dunbartonshire was completely under water. Crews managed to clear the flood and reopen the line by 12:30.

Severe flooding also closed the line near Bishopton in Renfrewshire while engineers inspected the track for possible damage.

The railway was also flooded at Lochwinnoch, leading to the suspension of services between Ayr, Ardrossan, Largs and Glasgow.

The East Coast line was closed at Markinch due to reports of a landslip, suspending services between Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee via Fife.

The West Coast Main Line was closed between Lockerbie and Carstairs due to flooding at Beattock, Dumfries and Galloway.

McGill's Buses suspended services and sections of routes throughout Inverclyde and Renfrewshire due to heavy rainfall and floods.

Two yellow weather warnings remain in place heading into Hogmanay.

A wind warning has been issued for Grampian, Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland from 18:00 on Friday until 03:00 on Saturday.

An alert for ice runs from 21:00 on Friday until 11:00 on Saturday, covering Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, HIghlands, Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland.

The Met Office said the deadly bomb cyclone that sent temperatures plunging in the US over Christmas was causing the unsettled weather in the UK.

Meteorologist Simon Patridge said the impact on Scotland would be "nowhere near as dramatic".