BOSCASTLE, Aug 17: Emergency services searched the wreckage of a picturesque English fishing village on Tuesday for 15 people unaccounted for after flash floods created a wall of water which tore through the valley.

Cars were swept out to sea, bridges were washed away and people clung to rooftops and trees for safety on Monday as torrential rain hit Britain's southwestern Atlantic coast.

Emergency workers mounted one of their biggest operations in years to rescue residents and holidaymakers along a 30-km stretch of the north Cornwall coast around Boscastle, 300 km from London.

Seven helicopters from the Coastguard, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force hovered overhead, winching people trapped by the churning brown waters to safety. As the tide and the flood waters receded on Tuesday morning, police divers searched the harbour as a police "body recovery" team stood by.

"Fifteen persons are still unaccounted for and the search of Boscastle is going on at the moment," said a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. "Every last stone is being checked slowly and painfully."

Five other rescue teams were searching the village, where cars, boulders and uprooted trees were strewn through the streets. Some shops had been torn in half by the floodwaters, which struck at 1445 GMT on Monday.

"We've got divers who'll be going into the harbour where we think there are between 50 and 60 vehicles," Richard Stowe, Assistant Chief Constable for Devon and Cornwall Police told BBC radio. "We've obviously got to check all those to make sure there are no casualties."

At the flood's peak some roads were submerged under 2.75 metres of water, and rescuers described the village as "devastated". Police said they were hopeful that the 15 people may not have been caught by the floods and would call into the casualty centre to report they were safe.

Devon and Cornwall police chief Maria Wallis said it was "amazing" that no one was known to have died. "But I should emphasize the search and rescue operation is still continuing, so we have to wait and see," she said. -Reuters