Storm Desmond: Torrential floods bring back to life 260ft-high Malham Cove waterfall

With floods wreaking havoc in the UK, a waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is gushing with water for the first time in living memory, according to local residents. Malham Cove, a large limestone amphitheatre which is 80 metres (262ft) high and 300 metres (984ft) wide, was filmed by Stuart Gledhill on Sunday 6 December.

"Well that's something that none of us in the village who have lived here all our lives have ever seen before. Wow," Gledhill said.

The waterfall stopped flowing by Monday 7 December, but was briefly the highest single drop waterfall in England. Alan Hulm, head of ranger services at the park said he had never seen the cove as a waterfall in his lifetime.

Due to the incredible amount of rain over the weekend, water flowed along what has been known as Dry Valley and over the top of the cove. It is believed that this the first time in several hundred years that water has surged over the cliffs of Malham Cove.

"It was truly amazing," he told the Yorkshire Evening Post. "The cove was formed in the Ice Age and melt-water created a natural amphitheatre 300 metres wide and about 80 metres high.

"We are struggling to find out the last time it flowed as a waterfall.

"People are saying for one day, and one day only, it was the biggest unbroken waterfall in England."

Professor Dame Julia Slingo, chief scientist at the Met Office, told BBC News these "extraordinary amounts of water" broke records going back to the 1800s.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the government of failing to do enough to tackle flooding. "Last year, the prime minister promised that 'money is no object' in dealing with flooding, itself a consequence of the destruction of our environment.

"But this has proved to be yet another false promise. In the last parliament, the government slashed spending on flood defences before the 2014 winter floods."