Britain battered by violent storms

LONDON, England -- The crews of two vessels were airlifted to safety as Britain was lashed by another day of storms.

The 17-strong crew of a French fishing vessel, Le Perrain, adrift in mountainous seas off the coast of Scotland, were winched to safety on Saturday in a dramatic rescue operation.

In a separate incident, the 16-strong Russian crew of the 6,000 tonne Maltese-registered Kodima was airlifted off the coast of Cornwall, in south west England, after the ship's condition deteriorated.

The sea rescue operations followed a day of widespread disruption across Britain and Ireland caused by severe gales, heavy rain and high tides.

Northern Ireland and northwest Scotland were battered by winds of up 85 mph (136 kmph).

In Cumbria, northwest England, three people were rescued from their car by emergency services overnight after they became submerged by flood waters.

The town of Crickhowell, in central Wales, was cut off on Saturday as rising waters from the River Usk flooded access roads, police said.

Coastguards in East Sussex, on the south coast, said the search for a man swept into the sea from underneath Brighton Pier on Friday evening had been called off.

The man was swept out to sea shortly afterwards by the "ferocity of the wave action", coastguards said.

A spokesman for Solent Coastguard said on Saturday that no trace of the man had been found.

Elsewhere, a fisherman who was swept off a stone pier at Porthcawl, south Wales, while fishing in gale force winds was rescued by coastguards.

Three people had to be rescued by emergency services after two vehicles were stranded in floodwater near the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire.

Seventeen passengers were stranded for two hours when a ferry was blown on to a sandbank as it approached Newhaven Harbour.

In Lancashire, police closed the promenade in Blackpool to motorists as waves, dozens of feet high, pounded the seafront.

Some vehicles were stranded after their drivers ignored police advice and attempted to drive through water several feet deep.

Hundreds of Welsh rugby fans trying to travel to Ireland for the Six Nations opening match were hampered by the bad weather.

Scores of supporters were stranded in Wales on Friday after huge gales and nine-metre waves forced some ferry companies to cancel their Irish Sea crossings.