The Met Office has issued a five day weather warning for rain and flood alerts are in place as the Sidmouth area is inundated with heavy rain, hail and high winds.

Sidmouth residents are being warned to expect:

-Homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings.

-Spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.

-Possible power cuts and loss of other services to some homes and businesses.

The Met Office's Yellow Weather Warning for heavy rain is currently in force until Sunday, December 22. Further weather warnings may be issued over the weekend.

The Environment Agency has also issued flood warnings for the rivers Otter and Sid, the Exmouth area and the Lower Exe River area.

According to the Met Office's forecast, the weather will stay unsettled this evening with heavy rain and strong winds expected overnight.

The rain is expected to ease as we approach dawn tomorrow and temperatures are expected become milder, with the minimum temperature expected to be around 7C.

After a dry start on Thursday more heavy rain will creep in from the south throughout the early afternoon. Extremely high winds are expected on the coast. The maximum temperature expected on Thursday is 12C.

Further rain showers are expected on Friday but will give way at times to 'bright interludes'.

The unsettled weather will continue into the weekend with further heavy rain and high winds predicted for Saturday and Sunday.