The town's Asda supermarket had to be evacuated when part of the roof caved in under a deluge of water.

Many streets and roads across town were left under several inches of water following the torrential downpours yesterday afternoon.

Several inches of rain fell in just a few minutes as the skies turned dark at around 4.30pm.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said: "The amount of rain that fell last night made up almost half of the monthly average rainfaill for July.

"There was 21.2mm in the Durham area, but that would have been considerably higher locally between 4pm and 9pm last night."

Shoppers had to flee the busy Asda, on Marina Way, Hartlepool, when the water started pouring in through the roof.

One customer, who was in the store with her 13-year-old daughter, said: "It was like a waterfall.

"It was just pouring in right the way along the length of the check-outs.

"Food was floating down the aisles.

"My daughter was saying 'mam can we get out' because it was quite scary.

"We went through the fire doors and when we came back round the front I could see the roof near the entrance had collapsed."

Around 1,000 customers were evacuated from Middleton Grange Shopping Centre at 4.45pm when water flowed in through blocked drains.

Centre manager Mark Rycraft said: "There must have been hundreds of gallons of water. It was immense.

"Because Middleton Grange's drains feed into the drains in Hartlepool, our own drains backed up flooding the centre at all entrances.

"We used eight pieces of machinery to suck up the water over an area that exceeded 200,000 sqft."

The clean up operation lasted for five hours and included specialist crisis teams who had been called in.

Both Asda and Middleton Grange were open today as normal.

Flooded roads in Hartlepool included Stockton Street in the town centre, Victoria Road, West View Road, Hart Lane. Oxford Road and Warren Road.

Fire crews pumped out the cellar of The Mill House pub, on Raby Road, Hartlepool, which also knocked out its electrics forcing a race night to be abandoned.

And firefighters were called to Park Tower apartments, in Park Road, to pump out water.

Around 40,000 homes across the region experienced a power cut at around 7pm, including many in the south of Hartlepool.

Light rain is forecast for today and Thursday, but is set to brighten up towards the weekend.