NEW YEAR WASH OUT

Floods halt Eurostar amid UK travel chaos

- KAREN ROCKETT

Tornadoes, 75mph wind & hail in forecast

MILLIONS face travel chaos for their New Year getaway, with freezing temperatures, heavy rain and tornadoes predicted.

Yesterday's stormy weather brought misery across the country with disrupted rail services and gridlock on the M1, M25 and M4-M5 interchange.

Some 10 million people are expected to be out on the roads, ahead of tonight's New Year's Eve celebrations.

Around 16,000 rail passengers yesterday found themselves stranded at London's St Pancras after flooding caused all Eurostar services out of the capital to be cancelled.

Southeastern's high-speed services - which use the same section of track, near Ebbsfleet International in Kent were also axed due to an "unprecedented" amount of water in a tunnel.

Ahead of Storm Henk swooping in, a rare tornado alert was in place until 6am this morning for Wales and much of Central, Eastern and Southern England.