Families in Potter Heigham said they have had to deal with a murky mix of rainwater and sewage seeping into their gardens this weekend after a pumping station became overloaded.

Residents in Meadow Court said they were flooded by the 'dirty' water yesterday (Saturday) and it has now crept over gardens, driveways and into garden sheds.

Lynn Barrow, who sent in these pictures, said she returned from a family outing to Alton Towers last night to find their driveway submerged.

She said: 'We hired a mini bus and we had to get out of the back of the mini bus because the water was that far up the drive. We woke up this morning and the court yard (outside the homes) was completely flooded.'

She rang Anglian Water several times - as neighbours had reported toilets struggling to flush and bath water failing to drain away - and an engineer was sent out at lunchtime.

Mrs Barrow, 42, said he confirmed the water had been 'contaminated' but she was 'annoyed' that residents had to wait so long for the problem to be sorted.

A tanker is due to visit the homes at 6.30pm to relieve the pumping station.

An Anglia Water spokesman said an alarm had gone off at the pumping station because of the sheer volume of water it was having to deal with.

They added: 'The pump has been running 24 hours a day for the last day and a half and alerted us to the fact there's a problem.

'The pumps are working as hard as they can but there's much more water in the system than there would be normally.'