Unseasonably heavy rain forced a number of shops and businesses in central Cambridge to shut down earlier today, as flooding broke out across the city. Part of the ceiling in the Central Library also collapsed causing minor damage to some of the library's books and resulting in the Grand Arcade briefly being evacuated. 

On Christ Lane both Bank and H&M were forced to close whilst on Sidney Street Sainsbury's and Lakeland were also shut this afternoon; although Sainsbury's hoped to open again by the evening. H&M initially only closed the first floor as water began to seep through the roof, but they were later forced to shut the whole store as flooding broke out on the ground level as well.

Meanwhile on Sidney Street there were reports of the water reaching several inches deep in many stores and large puddles formed on the streets. Parts of the New Museums site, including the Old Schools building which is home to CUSU, TCS and Varsity, were also reported to have suffered water damage in the floods.

The flooding appeared to be exacerbated by the drains being unable to cope with the large volume of water that had fallen in such a short time period. Although the water did slowly begin to clear as the afternoon went on.

A spokeswoman for the police confirmed that there had been reports made of flooding in Selwayn Gardens, Ditton Lane, Mill Road, Barnwell Road and Coldhams Lanes. Fire engines were also seen in Market Square after a considerable number of calls were made by businesses in Lion Yard and the surrounding streets.