RAIN, hail and even snow brought chaos to parts of the region this afternoon.

A thunderstorm hit the centre of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, flooding shops and peppering cars with giant hailstones.

Snow fell in Tow Law, while Newgate Street, in Bishop Auckland, was closed for a short time and Bishop Barrington School, where children saw water leaking through classroom ceilings, will stay shut today.

Some shoppers in the town centre had a lucky escape when parts of a shop ceiling fell in under the weight of water.

A foot of water poured through the Newgate Centre from the bus station behind.

Centre manager David Wilson was still assessing the impact of the storm late this afternoon.

He said: "It is too early to say how bad it is but there is damage to the floor and the lift shaft is full of water.

"I have never seen anything like it. There was water a foot deep coming in. Some of the drains just blew.

"I was just going to close the centre when it subsided almost as quickly as it came.

"It is going to take a while to dry out."

Outside the town centre police turned traffic away from the worst affected areas and worried householders called out fire crews to pump water away from their homes.

John Robson, of County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Brigade, said: "We had a number of calls but everything was dealt with quickly and there was no lasting damage."