A parade of shops in Beaconsfield are flooded this afternoon after ‘almost biblical’ rainfall.

China Diner, Clarks, Crew Clothing and WHSmith in The Highway, Station Road, are all suffering after torrential rain left a deep puddle covering half of the road and all of the pavement.

Water is also coming in through the shop doors, leaving passersby to tiptoe through the puddle.

An assistant manager in one of the affected businesses, Dawn Seaman, said the pavement and front entrance of the shop gets flooded by water every time it rains heavily.

She said: “It has been quite torrential today, this is the worst I have ever seen it. If a big vehicle goes past, the water comes right up inside the store. When a bin lorry went though, the water came right up to the carpet.

“It is frustrating and unpleasant when this happens. It is not very convenient when we have people coming in here with pushchairs.

“It only takes about half an hour of heavy rain for it to come into the shop. I think there needs to be better drains along this road. There is one, but it cannot handle the rain when it is torrential like this.”

Shop worker Nikki Montague said it was lucky that they did not have stock on the floor inside as the water crept up to behind the till area.

She said: “It is a nightmare. It is horrendous out there. We have a broom and have to keep clearing the dirt out because it doesn’t look nice and we are trying to make it better than it is.

“When it rains a lot like it has today, the puddle comes up from the road and over the pavement. It is very inconvenient.”

Beaconsfield resident Bob Massie said the rainfall has been ‘almost biblical’ today.

He said: “It is absolutely torrential out there. My wife drove through The Highway and told me that all these shops have been flooded.”

Despite the flooding, the road is still open to drivers.