Cars abandoned on flooded Fens road by suspected hare coursers

A group of suspected hare coursers had to swim to safety after falling foul of a flood-prone stretch of road.

Officers patrolling The Fens in Cambridgeshire came across two abandoned cars partially submerged at the A1101 Welney Wash Road.

Images on Twitter show the 4x4 vehicles stuck in the floodwaters of the Ouse Washes with their doors open to the elements.

"Seven men with dogs reported swimming from the area," the police tweet said.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said they were called to "reports of a group of people walking away from submerged vehicles in Welney wash".

The occupants had left the scene by the time police arrived, and police said the vehicles would be recovered once the water subsided.

"Cambridgeshire's flat and rural landscape can make it a popular area for hare coursing," according to force's rural crime team.

The illegal practice involves using dogs to kill hares.

The Welney Wash Road crosses the 6,000-acre Ouse Washes reservoir between the village of Welney, on the Norfolk-Cambridgeshire border - and the Suspension Bridge road.

The Washes serve as a flood plain and the road is regularly closed in the winter.

A barrier system will be built on the A1101 later this year, according to the Environment Agency.