Parts of County Down experienced flash flooding overnight on Saturday into Sunday morning as more than two inches of rain in Northern Ireland brought an abrupt end to a ten-day dry spell.

Flooding was reported on Tullybrannigan Road, Sunningdale Drive and Slievecorragh Avenue in the seaside town of Newcastle, where residents used sandbags to protect their homes as floodwaters rose.

Samuel Guist, who lives in the Tullybrannigan Road area, told the BBC: “One of my neighbours who has lived here for 40 years said he has never seen anything like it.”

Local residents said the heavy rain caused torrents of water to wash debris from the slopes of the Mourne Mountains on to nearby roads.

BBC Northern Ireland reported on Sunday afternoon that the Department for Infrastructure had deployed around 500 sandbags, while Roads Service staff were working to remove large stones and debris from affected routes.

A yellow weather warning for rain in counties Antrim, Armagh and Down was issued by the UK Met Office on Friday and later extended until 3pm on Sunday.

The UK Met Office synoptic station at Lough Fea, near Cookstown in County Tyrone, reported 56.8mm of rainfall up to midday on Sunday.

Conditions have greatly improved across Ireland this evening with widespread sunshine developing in many parts.

In the Republic of Ireland, Johnstown Castle in Wexford recorded 37.2 mm of rain, with high totals also reported at Roches Point, Cork (32.5 mm), Cork Airport (31 mm), Valentia, Kerry (28.6 mm) and Mullingar, Westmeath (22.2 mm).

Some strong winds were also reported with Malin Head in Donegal recording a 83 km/h gust at 5.00am on Sunday.

Status Orange alerts had been in place for Cork and Waterford, while Met Éireann and the UK Met Office issued Status Yellow rainfall alerts for Kerry, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny and Louth.