200 homes remain without power

Southern Electric has brought in extra staff to deal with the workload

About 200 homes in Oxfordshire are still without electricity after bad weather brought power cables down.

At the height of the storm, about 3,500 homes in Wheatley, Tiddington, Wootton, Sandford, Faringdon and Abingdon were without electricity.

Southern Electric said the Faringdon area was still cut off.

Some homes in Mollington and Banbury were also struck by lightning, while properties in Bath Terrace, Bicester, and Kiln Lane, Garsington, flooded.

The Thames Valley was among the worst affected areas, as storms continued to hit parts of England and Wales throughout the night.

There were bolts of lightning like I'd never seen before Michael Fortune

A warning of further heavy rain by the Met Office has been withdrawn.

Michael Fortune, who lives in Elizabeth Avenue, Abingdon, told the BBC News website the storm was "like a monsoon - it's the only way to describe it".

"It woke us up at 0330 BST. About an hour-and-a-half later we lost power."

He said his property narrowly missed being flooded.

"There were bolts of lightning like I'd never seen before. It gradually just got worse and worse and worse."

He said a rain gauge in his garden measured that 50mm (2in) of rain fell during the two-hour storm.

Sharon Miller-Mckenzie, of Southern Electric, said the company had been making "great progress" in fixing power cables brought down by the bad weather.

Direct strike

"We've reconnected 2,500 homes already," she told the BBC News website.

"We've had a lot of problems with lightning and direct strikes on the network. Nothing really protects equipment from a direct strike."

She said extra staff had been brought in to deal with the workload.

The Met Office had warned that further heavy rain could follow but at lunchtime on Thursday it said no severe weather was expected.