Over the weekend, Teddington Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) received three call outs within 12 hours.

For example, the Teddington RNLI crew members were called to assist the London Fire Brigade (LFB) at 5.17 am yesterday, Sunday 20 October, to help rescue two people inside a car parked quite a way from the river with water up to the door handles on the outside with water inside the car.

One of the occupants was quite distressed. 

The LFB managed to get the car door open and both occupants were helped into the lifeboat.

Teddington RNLI was able to take them to dry land.

Teddington RNLI's Jon Chapman helm said: "The tide was exceptionally high and the water riverside in Twickenham was probably as high as any I've ever seen.

"Being able to get the lifeboat right up to a car half-full of water parked on a public road in Twickenham was one of my more surreal service scenarios."

The LFB told Teddington Nub News: "Firefighters were called to an incident near Church Lane in Twickenham on Sunday.

 "Two people were rescued from a car surrounded by water by crews from the Brigade and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Both people were treated on scene by London Ambulance Service.

 "Control Officers received the first of three calls at 4.58am and mobilised three fire engines and two Fire Rescue Units from Twickenham, Richmond, Heston and Battersea Fire Stations to the scene. The incident was over for firefighters at 5.52am.

The water had apparently risen very quickly and the occupants were quite distressed not knowing how much higher it would go and whether the car would start floating away.

According to Nature in Richmond Borough, yesterday saw one of the highest tides in Richmond.

5.5 metres of tide was observed, according to the Port of London authority website, and 5.3 metres predicted. 

Posting on Facebook, a Nature in Richmond Borough member said: "On the path between Twickenham Bridge and the Lock bridge, I went from sitting on the bench in the sunshine to watching knee deep water gushing from river, over the path into the Old Deer Park in the space of 40 minutes.

"Safely perched on the steps of Twickenham bridge at that point. It looked strong enough to sweep someone off their feet if not careful. A bit scary."

The tides yesterday also caused a section of the Thames towpath between Richmond Lock and Kew Gardens car park to collapse in the river.