Cobridge Update

Thousands are spending a second night without phone lines or broadband access.

The first UN aid boats have come up the River Trent to provide much needed cigarettes and scratch cards to businesses hit hard by the disaster.

Freelance photographer Gil Trusthouse told Signal Gold radio that he saw a roadblock formed by teenage chavs. "They charged a fiver to let me through," he said. "This is clearly a call for help, an act of anger against God and Government," he added.

BBC Stoke reporter Percival Cok has said that the situation in Cobridge was becoming increasingly desparate, with no sense of a co-ordinated clean-up effort, and scant oatcake supplies and alcohol only trickling in.

This afternoon, officials at the UN have said that 10 of its 100 people based in the city have yet to report after going out into the city last night.

The US has been among those sending rescue packs by plane, although there are reports they have been mistakenly dropping wanted posters of Fidel Castro instead.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been quick to respond to the situation. "I think the harrowing area of Cobridge being broadcast on people's TV screens brings home to everyone the sheer scale of suffering that the people of Stoke go through," he said.

Nick Clegg also added his thoughts on the situation. "Broadcasting the harrowing area of Cobridge on people's TV screens brings home the sheer scale of suffering through which the people of Stoke are going."

Dramatic stories of survival and courage have began to emerge. Police have pulled fity-year-old Phil Machin from his shed, where he had been trapped for two hours after a leak in the roof caused the door lock to jam. His magazine collection is said to be "decimated". Elsewhere, efforts to rescue survivors trapped in a Yates's Wine Lodge in Cobridge have so far proved unsuccessful, with efforts being done by locals with simple tools or with their bare hands. Spirits are said to be low with those trapped inside.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has asked for donations of clothes and money. "The locals have been reduced to wearing tracksuits and hoodies on a daily basis," he explained. "It's terrible. We have to help."