Severe flooding which forced hundreds of Glasgow residents to leave their homes could have been avoided, according to a city councillor.

George Ryan said it was "well known" that the sewerage system in Shettleston was out of date and could not cope with Tuesday's heavy rain.

He has called for action to modernise the system and said the issue was raised with West of Scotland Water, the predecessor to the new unitary authority Scottish Water.

Many people in the area say they did not have home contents insurance and face large debts in trying to replace waterlogged possessions.

"My concern is that this was avoidable and has been well known and well documented for quite a long time," the Shettleston councillor said.

I can almost certainly guess that as soon as there is any kind of rainfall that there will be some more flooding in my area

George Ryan, Glasgow councillor

"That part of Shettleston and Greenfield is at the bottom of a valley and the Victorian sewer that runs north to south just hasn't got the capacity to deal with excess of water.

"I can almost certainly guess that as soon as there is any kind of rainfall that there will be some more flooding in my area.

"We've got a 19th century sewer trying to deal with 21st century problems."

'Intense rainfall'

Scottish Water said it had been working closely with Glasgow City Council since Tuesday but denied that the sewer capacity was to blame.

A spokesman said: "The flooding resulted from extremely intense rainfall in the area.

"The limited observation of the sewer network which can be carried out at present suggested that the flooding in the Cockenzie Street area is due to the impact of surface water run-off rather than a lack of capacity in the sewer network.

Residents count the cost of the flooding

"A full investigation is currently under way to determine all the causes of flooding in the Shettleston area."

Scotland has been continuing to mop up and count the cost of Tuesday's floods.

The search has been continuing for a young man who fell into a water-filled hole at Riddrie cemetery in Glasgow's east end.

Eyewitnesses saw David Storrie, 18, disappear after the ground appeared to give way beneath him as he walked his dog during Tuesday's downpour.

Transport links

Rail services and roads were particularly badly affected by the rain but the situation was continuing to return to normal on Thursday.

ScotRail's Glasgow to Edinburgh service has resumed operating from the high level station at Glasgow Queen Street, with an hourly service to Aberdeen.

However, Perth, Stirling, Inverness and Dunblane services were continuing to operate via Springburn and the Argyle Line remained closed.

The Perth-Inverness service also remained closed at the Slochd .

The landslip at the Slochd has reduced the A9 to single lane and a landslip also meant the A84 remained closed between Loch Lubnaig and Pass of Leny.