Shoppers were caught up in the downpour over Sunderland

A shopping centre in Sunderland had to be evacuated on Tuesday tea time after heavy rainfall caused drains to overflow.

The Bridges Centre, which is home to 100 big name stores, experienced problems after water started spilling onto the main concourses.

The problems were caused during a heavy deluge which accompanied a thunder and lightning storm over the Wearside city.

It was decided for safety reasons to close the centre completely at 1655 BST.

Most stores in The Bridges usually close at 1730 BS, so trading was not greatly disrupted.

'Potentially dangerous'

Centre manager Phil Steele told BBC News Online: "The heavy rainfall meant the drains in Sunderland could not cope with the downpour.

"It was not just ourselves, other drains in Sunderland were affected.

"Water was coming up into the mall, and it was potentially dangerous, so we made the decision to close early.

"We were getting big puddles and they were also threatening to spill into some of the stores."

The centre plans to open on Wednesday as usual.

Transport hit

There were other weather-related problems in Sunderland on Tuesday night.

Ariva Trains Northern suspended services between Sunderland and Heworth, and replaced trains with buses.

And there were no Metro services in Sunderland after lightning struck an electricity sub-station in Pallion. It caused a fire, which was brought under control by firefighters.

Services were later resumed between Pelaw and Park Lane, but between Park Lane and South Hilton were still down.

Engineers were working during the night to restore power to that stretch of the line.