Power restored after storms

Storm damage was caused across the country

Power has been restored to thousands of homes in Scotland after damage caused by violent storms which battered the country.

Electricity suppliers claimed all but a few homes remained unconnected after Monday's gales.

Scotland's two power companies said they had restored power to around 5,000 customers on Wednesday, with only a few areas still not connected.

The power companies drafted in extra staff from south of the border and have been using helicopters to detect problems in remote areas.

Engineers have been working round the clock

At its peak, up to 90,000 people were left without power north of the border.

The storms, which saw winds reaching 140 miles per hour on the Scottish mountains, led to eight deaths across the UK - four of them north of the border.

The eighth victim was Kathleen Nash, 42, of Airdrie in North Lanarkshire, who died in hospital on Tuesday.

Her partner John Speirs, 42, of Barrhead in Glasgow, died on Monday after a tree fell on top of them outside the Hilton Dunkeld Hotel in Perthshire.

The other victims included George Stewart, 39, of Motherwell, who had been asleep in the bunk of a lorry which was blown over in Glencoe.

Flood warnings

Lorry driver Raymond Ward, 48, of Carlisle, died when his vehicle overturned in high winds on the A77, near Monkton, Ayrshire.

Fears over heavy rain and melting snow led to a number of flood warnings in Scotland on Tuesday, but these were all dropped by the end of the day.

However, there were nine flood watches in place on Wednesday, mainly in Angus, Tayside and Perthshire.

There were also warnings over driving conditions as heavy rain caused problems on the roads across the country.

All ScotRail services were running as normal again, apart from a one hour delay on the Helensburgh to Dumbarton line.