Severe flooding in north east Scotland has led to questions about why adequate prevention schemes were not in place.

People had to be rescued from their homes in Moray, with the town of Elgin bearing the brunt of the damage from torrential rains over two days.

The neighbouring towns of Forres and Rothes were also affected by the storms which forced the river Lossie to burst its banks.

Two hundred members of the emergency services took part in the rescue operation.

Sandy Ritchie: Taken by surprise

Three hundred people had to be moved to emergency accommodation with many staying overnight at Elgin High School.

Elgin was also hit by severe flooding in 1997 and 2000.

Sandy Ritchie, Moray Council's Emergency Planning Officer, said that new flood prevention schemes were planned, but needed parliamentary approval before they could go ahead.

He said: "We had hoped that a scheme for Elgin would have been ready to be constructed in about a year to 18 months.

"However, this event has taken us by surprise."

Mr Ritchie said that the council had plugged some of the known weak points in the river after the 1997 and 2000 floods.

Living memory

"However, the volume of water that came down in the last two days really went over in an uncontrollable fashion."

At the height of the flooding in Elgin, 10 people had to be airlifted by RAF Lossiemouth from the flooded main street and coastguards were drafted in to rescue people from their homes by boat.

Inspector Stewart Milne of Grampian Police said the floods had been "the worst in living memory".

He said there were reports that the flood water reached 4ft high in some place.

He said there were no reports of any injuries and it was too early to estimate the cost of the damage.

"The police have been stretched to the limit over the weekend," he said.

A road bridge was completely swept away on the B9015 between Rothes and Mosstodloch and the Aberdeen-Inverness Rail line between Insch and Forres was closed along with 18 stretches of road.